Figure's retired humanoid robots jumped into molten steel. Arnold Schwarzenegger watched.
Figure retired its F.02 fleet this week. Its film of the job has passed 490,000 YouTube views since 30 September. F.02 was the robot behind the company's first deployment at BMW. With the F.03 fleet growing, Figure says, keeping F.02 running no longer made sense.
The robots are full of custom actuators that Figure treats as intellectual property, and taking each apart would have delayed F.04, the company wrote. Figure says Schwarzenegger suggested melting them and said he wanted to be involved.
None of the foundries Figure asked in the US and Mexico would take robots with lithium-ion batteries. One in Imatra, Finland, agreed. Figure says its 75-ton electric arc furnace gave the team 24 hours and six melts, each with a 20-minute window before the steel formed a crust.
Figure says a new AI model, trained in simulation on stunt artists' movements, let the robots jump on their own while cameras and electronics failed in the heat. The metal is being machined into a limited series of keepsakes for sale.
How does your company retire hardware that carries its own trade secrets?
🎥 Video: Figure, official YouTube channel (company film) · narration: AI voice
What the captions say
- Figure's retired F.02 robots leap into molten steel.
- No foundry in the US or Mexico would take them.
- One in Imatra, Finland, said yes.
- Arnold's advice was to melt them, Figure says.
- Six melts, 20 minutes each before the crust.
- Figure says its own AI steered every jump.
- Footage: Figure's own film of the stunt.
