Figure Melts Down Humanoid Robot Fleet in Terminator-Style Finale
American robotics firm Figure decommissioned its Figure 02 humanoid fleet by having them autonomously jump into a 75-ton electric arc furnace in Finland, inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger and reminiscent of "Terminator 2".
If you ever wondered how humanity would part ways with its robots, it turns out the answer lies somewhere between a steel mill in Finland and "Terminator 2".
The Rise and Fall of Figure 02
American robotics company Figure develops humanoid robots designed to work in factories and industrial environments. The company has recently become a prominent player in the race for humanoid robots, raising billions of dollars at a valuation of tens of billions. Among other milestones, its robots have already worked on BMW assembly lines in the United States.
Recently, the company decided to decommission most of its Figure 02 fleet after transitioning to the new generation, Figure 03. However, disassembling the robots manually would have taken considerable time, and the company also wanted to prevent proprietary technology from falling into the wrong hands.
CEO Brett Adcock turned to the internet for suggestions. Among the replies came a proposal from someone who knows a thing or two about human-robot relations: Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"Melt them down," he suggested.
Training Robots to Jump into Furnaces
In a bizarre twist, instead of simply discarding the robots into a furnace, Figure engineers trained them to jump in on their own. At the company's headquarters in San Jose, air bags were deployed, stunt choreography was used for training, and an AI model was developed to enable the robots to execute the jump precisely.
The goal was molten steel. However, the team soon realized they needed to find a factory willing to accept robots containing lithium batteries into a furnace. Facilities in the United States and Mexico refused, but eventually, a plant in Imatra, Finland, with a 75-ton electric arc furnace agreed.
The team had 24 hours and six melting cycles. According to Figure, despite the intense heat and electromagnetic fields, the robots continued to operate and autonomously executed their final jumps into the furnace.
A Cinematic Finale
Schwarzenegger himself joined the production, and the result resembles a near-complete homage to "Terminator 2", complete with the famous thumbs-up gesture emerging from the molten steel.
Figure emphasizes that the video is authentic and was not generated using artificial intelligence. The company did not disclose how many robots were destroyed, but stated that most of the Figure 02 fleet was melted down, with a few units preserved at headquarters.
Before this cinematic end, the robots managed to put in some serious work: according to Figure, they handled more than 90,000 parts at the BMW plant in the United States, accumulated over 1,250 hours of operation, and took part in the production of more than 30,000 BMW X3 vehicles.
