Company attributes
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Figure specializes in designing and building humanoid robots to address labor shortages in supply chains across a variety of industries. Industries particularly affected by labor shortage are targeted by the company, including manufacturing, shipping and logistics, warehousing, and retail.
Brett Adcock, the company's founder and CEO, has stated that "Figure's near-term goal is to deploy humanoids into the workforce, and we believe that the structured, repetitive, and often dangerous tasks in warehouses are a great potential first application."
Adcock also remarked that Figure differentiates from other robotics companies, such as Boston Dynamics and Amazon Robotics, by developing robots capable of handling general tasks. The CEO expressed that Figure aims to enable its robots to learn and interact with the environment, stressing the company's belief that general-purpose humanoid robots have more potential applicability and usefulness than single-purpose robots.
Digital render of Figure's humanoid robot prototype
The primary purpose of the panels covering the robot’s metal skeleton is safety, which is a significant concern since industrial robots are intended for operating alongside people. In the case of Figure robots, there are several potential hazards, such as electrocution. The panels outfitting the robots on display in their prototypical stages were made of 3D-printed plastic.
According to Adcock, in its early development stages, it was undecided whether the robot would have a head, since most of the integral components, such as sensors, could be fitted elsewhere on the body. Eventually, the head was incorporated into the design to house some of the sensors as the torso was equipped to capacity with batteries and various computing components. Instead of one large battery, the prototype's torso was filled with individual 2170 battery cells.
Figure received $70 million in Series A funding in May 2023. Along with Figure's funding announcement, the company emerged from stealth. The company obtained another $9 million in funding from Intel Capital in July 2023.
