Tired of doing laundry? This humanoid could make washing clothes a little easier
Figure’s new AI-powered humanoid robot can load your laundry, bringing home automation one step closer to reality.
It’s no secret that doing the laundry isn’t the most exciting task, although it’s one the vast majority of us simply have to get on with. Unless, however, you are the CEO of a robotics company.
The world’s “first commercially viable autonomous humanoid robot”
Brett Adcock is the founder of Figure, an AI robotics company that is building “the world’s first commercially viable autonomous humanoid robot,” according to its X profile.
Last week, Adcock shared a video on social media of Figure’s latest humanoid robot, Figure 02, helping out with chores at home. In the short clip, the robot is shown taking clothes out of a basket and loading them into the washing machine, with some help from Adcock’s children.
Adcock also revealed Figure has been “running AI models doing laundry at the office for over a month now” in a separate video, and claimed it was “exciting to see Helix running in real homes.”
Helix is Figure’s generalist Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model, which can unify perception, language and human understanding. It is essentially the AI brain behind the robot shown in the clips.
Humanoid robot set for home trials
Figure’s ultimate goal is to sell the humanoid robot to consumers, with Adcock revealing that home trials are set to be carried out later in the year.
There is still some way to go before we stop doing laundry altogether, as the Figure 02 still has to learn how to operate washing machines, of which there are many different models, never mind fold our clothes exactly the way we like them.
However, its current capabilities are seen as a significant step towards automation in the home. It might not be long before we can finally put our feet up and let the robots handle it.
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