Summary
Figure says it retired most of its F.02 robot fleet by having robots trained in simulation jump into molten steel at a foundry in Finland. The company plans to turn the resulting metal into a limited series of commemorative artifacts.
Figure says it decommissioned most of its F.02 robot fleet in a foundry demonstration in Imatra, Finland, where robots trained in simulation jumped into molten steel. The company says the fleet was retired as its newer F.03 fleet grew, and that taking the F.02 robots apart individually would have occupied technical staff and delayed the launch of F.04.
The company described the robots’ custom-built actuators and other proprietary hardware as reasons to avoid ordinary disposal. After finding no US or Mexican foundry willing to accept a robot with lithium-ion batteries for a furnace, Figure says a foundry in Finland agreed to take on the project.
Why Figure retired the F.02 fleet
F.02 marked several early milestones for Figure, according to the company: its first deployment at BMW, the start of its Helix work, its first robot performing household chores, and its first logistics deployment. With F.03 production expanding, Figure said continuing to maintain the older fleet no longer made sense.
The company chose melting over dismantling. The resulting metal was sent back to the United States and is being machined into a limited series of artifacts commemorating F.02. Figure has not described the artifacts’ specifications in the announcement.
Training a robot to make the jump
Figure began training at its San Jose campus, using large airbags to practise jumps from the second floor of a building. Stunt artists’ movements informed the work, while the company trained a new AI model in simulation for the jump into a bucket of molten steel at a foundry the team had not previously visited.
The foundry used a 75-ton electric arc furnace powered by three large graphite electrodes to melt steel scrap. Figure says the team had 24 hours and six melts to complete the work, with each melt offering a 20-minute period before the molten steel cooled and formed a hard crust. The company reports that the robots’ AI policies ran during the jumps despite the heat and electromagnetic fields, which caused camera equipment and other electronics to fail.
The demonstration shows a robot policy trained in simulation being used for a physical task in an unfamiliar industrial setting. Figure’s account does not give the model architecture or quantitative jump-accuracy results, so the technical performance is described through the company’s account of the event.