This humanoid robot will soon be found in people’s homes

Some say the robot bubble is about to burst, while others are actually creating robots and are now bringing them to real homes for the first time. The differences are enormous, but it seems that Figure 03 is now being adopted by households for the first time. Figure AI introduced its home robot a few days ago.

Dreaming of Rosie

We all dream of having a kind of Rosie from the Jetsons at home. She can do all the dirty work, like vacuuming, dusting, washing dishes, and cooking. We’ve also seen her help with childcare and acting as a personal assistant, which is ideal. Although it’s also scary: what if Rosie turns against the Jetsons? 

1X and Figure 03

Humanoid robots for home use are being tested on a small scale. The Norwegian company 1X is already quite advanced, as is the American company Figure AI with its Figure 03. The robot uses the AI ​​model Vision Language Action and can perform all sorts of tasks around the house, even when furniture isn’t always in the same place or there’s clutter.

The robot can pick up any object, even objects it doesn’t recognise. In a video, we see it throwing a ball with the dog, tidying away towels and cups, and watering the plants. It could even do the dishes. It works so well that people wonder if it’s an AI robot , rather than one powered by AI.

60 kilogram

Figure 03 stands 1.70 meters tall and weighs 60 kilograms. It can operate for five hours per charge. Sounds handy, but the robot’s price hasn’t been announced yet. It is reportedly ready for mass production. The device will likely be costly: if Apple’s tabletop robot reportedly asks for €1,000, while Tesla’s Optimus is priced at around €20,000 to €30,000, even though it can do less, then Figure 03 will likely primarily be an addition to wealthy households. On the other hand, this could increase the scale and make the product more affordable, making the robot more accessible to other families.

Moreover, it’s questionable how useful these humanoid robots actually are: Figure 03 can fold clothes and load the dishwasher, but not without human help. He can load the washing machine, but he can’t press start. Even if he drops something, a human often has to pick it up, even though he could pick up anything. Time spoke with the robot’s creators, and that offers a bit more depth than the extremely polished launch video of the humanoid robot.

Figure AI

The brand’s Figure AI robots are already earning money to fund their successor: several 10-hour shifts are being worked at the BMW factory. Figure AI’s CEO Brett Adcock is incredibly confident about the robots: “In the next 10 years—maybe even less than 10 years—the biggest company in the world will be a company that makes humanoid robots. Every household will have a humanoid doing household chores, from emptying the dishwasher to making the bed. We think there will be billions of them working every day. They will work in healthcare, and eventually in space, helping to build colonies in space and on different planets.” 

So, it’s quite a stretch, especially considering that as humans, we prefer to see our socks simply collected and neatly placed in the sock drawer. But if we’re to believe Adcock, we’re already much closer to that than you might think.