Silicon Valley robotics startup Figure AI says it’s moving ahead with plans to deploy autonomous humanoid robots into homes sooner than expected.
The startup, launched in 2023, initially planned to refine its AI-powered humanoids in industrial settings before offering them to the consumer market. Those plans changed after Figure developed its own AI system specifically tailored for humanoid robotics learning.
“Figure is launching robots into the home,” Figure founder and CEO Brett Adcock wrote on the X social media platform. “Our AI, Helix, is advancing faster than any of us anticipated, accelerating our timeline into the home.”
Important update: Figure is launching robots into the home
— Brett Adcock (@adcock_brett) February 27, 2025
Our AI, Helix, is advancing faster than any of us anticipated, accelerating our timeline into the home
Therefore, we've moved-up our home timeline by 2 years; starting Alpha testing this year pic.twitter.com/t1TU1TseJq
Adcock said Figure is moving its timeline for home deployments by two years. The company will start testing the Alpha model of its humanoids in homes this year, according to Adcock. The announcement comes a week after 1X Technologies introduced its NEO Gamma humanoid robot, which will soon start testing in select homes.
According to Figure, Helix is a vision language action model tailored for humanoid robotics control. The startup calls it the first VLA model to enable high-rate control of the entire upper body, including wrists, fingers, torso, and head.
With less than 500 hours of training, robots powered by Helix can pick up virtually any object by voice command. Figure says the model is also the first of its kind to run on two robots simultaneously.
In a demo video, two Figure 02 humanoid robots are shown collaborating as they put away groceries. Natural language prompts drive the actions.
Since Helix runs on one neural network for all behaviors, there’s no need for task-specific fine-tuning. It runs entirely on embedded low-power GPUs, making it more feasible for real-world applications.
Figure says the technology is essential to bring AI-powered humanoid robots into homes. Unlike industrial settings, where Figure 02 robots are currently training extensively, households are full of unpredictable and diverse objects.