Like Fritz Lang’s 1927 Metropolis, James Cameron’s 1984 The Terminator, or even Ridley Scott’s 1982 Blade Runner, many science-fiction movies in the Entertainment Industry have been based on Humanoid Robots with arms, legs, bodies, and faces. In films, directors portray humanoid robotics as built and developed well-advanced, clearly out of our real-world accomplishments in Robotics manufacturing.
Although many companies and organizations are pursuing the manufacture and development of robotics and have already started incorporating these machines into humans’ daily lives, it will only take decades more to produce a complete commercially viable, and functional autonomous robotic humanoid powered by artificial intelligence. Like Sophia – the humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics in Hong Kong, there are yet other manufacturing companies like Tesla that are building to produce commercially viable autonomous humanoid robots that expand on enhanced human capabilities to achieve more in life. Currently only presenting prototypes of their robots, developments are being made every day, but this is a long-term game spanning decades, and we won’t be seeing the end products anytime soon.
Commercial robots are being manufactured and developed as several warehousing, manual labor, and factory-related jobs would be dangerous for humans but would be simple and easy tasks for a robot. Therefore the future of robotics is near and at hand, by replicating human actions as well as their image and form, humanoid robots can hear, listen, study, replicate, assist, think, understand, communicate, and much more just like humans do, but with Artificial Intelligence backing it.
Therefore in this article, we will be sharing insights into an American company that is driving towards integrating human and technology advancements in robotics. Figure – founded by CEO Brett Adcock, started this AI machine manufacturing company in California, USA, is the 1st in the world to produce commercially viable autonomous humanoid robots, that help expand human capabilities.
About Brett Adcock – Founder and CEO at Figure:
The Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Figure is Brett Adcock. Hailing from Central Illinois on a third-generational agricultural farm, Brett went on to attend a 4-year educational degree from the University of Florida. Before starting Figure, Brett founded ‘Various Startups’ in 2008, and then in 2012 at the age of 26, he founded Vettery – an online talent marketplace built to solve problems around human capital and match people to the right jobs. In 2018, Brett founded Archer – an aerospace and aviation company that builds all-electric aircraft that take off and land to improve mobility concerns in the city. Soon after, in 2022 Figure was founded – to manufacture and develop an AI-powered human-machine collaboration.
A company that targets and focuses on commercial humanoid robotics, Brett Adcock combines his technological savviness with his entrepreneurship in developing a general-purpose humanoid robot. Brett Adcock’s ambition is – “to build this company with a 30-year view, spending my time and resources on maximizing my utility impact to humanity”.
About FIGURE:
Figure was founded by Brett Adcock in the year 2022. The company mission is – “to expand human capabilities through advanced AI.” Figure is established and is located in Sunnyvale, California, USA. Brett started Figure as the world’s first commercially viable autonomous humanoid robot. With creating a higher quality of life, repairing the supply chain, and supporting the emerging economics, the company engineers the robots to be a one-of-a-kind that serves a much higher yet general purpose that would help humans in day-to-day tasks, allowing the latter to pursue other interests in life, thereby potentially creating wealth and more purposeful lives for all.
Vision – “to deploy autonomous humanoid robots on a global scale o solve challenges within the labor economy.”
With human-robot interaction allowed to be present in workplace environments, concerns in the employment workforce is lifted or reduced. Labour shortages and employees working in dangerous jobs are reducd and replaced with humanoid robotics. Figure has successfully manufactured a prototype called Figure 01, which was what led the company to be regocognized as the world’s 1st commercially viable autonomous humanoid robot. With a height of 5’6’’, Figure 01 has a 5-hour run-time and is alectrically AI powered.
“The labour force is shrinking” – says Figure, the United States alone sees over 10 million jobs that are left unfilled and over 7 million people work in the manufacturing, warehousing, retail, and logistics sectors. The attrition rate are high, and hence only 6 million people agree to work in such sectors that are undesirable or unsafe. Therefore, Figure 01 is – “a worker to fill the gaps.” Engineering and developing to think, hear, listen, learn, understand, reason, and communicate, Figure 01 robots will be leveraged to join the workforce and work alongside humans, complete work seamlessly, effortlessly, and efficiently.
Core Values – “Move Fast and be Fearless. Product First and Mission-Focused, Aggressively Optimistic, Maximize Future Impact, and Championship Mindset.”
The team behind Figure’s engineering and development in advanced robotics are comprised of experts and professionals in the fields of design, artificial intelligence, hardware, and software engineering. Realizing that with labor shortages in the country, automation is the only next best solution to maintain productiveness as the advancements in technology, machine learning, and AI is continuously and rapidly evolving. Mission-focused, Figure does not want its robots to aid military and defense categories but only to aid humans in replacing jobs that are unsafe, dangerous, or just not desired. Hence 3 major business opportunities have been proposed where Figure’s general-purpose robots will join humans to work in – Physical Labour sectors, Consumer Household sectors, and in Space Explorations. Figure has over 80 professional employee workforce, that has amassed over 100+ years of combined AI and humanoid experienced, and is presently 2 years until go-to market!