Insider Brief
- Figure AI retired most of its Figure 02 humanoid robot fleet by training the robots to jump autonomously into molten steel, a decommissioning stunt inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s suggestion to “melt them.”
- Figure trained a new AI model in simulation using stunt performers as references, then shipped the robots to a foundry in Finland after facilities in the U.S. and Mexico declined to handle units containing lithium-ion batteries.
- Most of the Figure 02 fleet has now been destroyed, with the resulting steel returned to the U.S. for a limited series of commemorative artifacts while a small number of robots remain in storage.
Figure AI retired most of its Figure 02 humanoid robot fleet in an unusual way by training the robots to jump autonomously into a vat of molten steel. If that sounds familiar, there’s a reason.
According to the company, maintaining Figure 02 no longer made sense as its Figure 03 fleet grows. Figure 02 had been used in several early company achievements, including Figure’s first BMW deployment, the development of its Helix system, household chores and a logistics deployment.
Decommissioning the robots presented another problem. Figure said the fleet contained custom actuators and other proprietary hardware that needed to be destroyed securely, but manually disassembling each unit would take technical staff away from work on Figure 04.
“So we asked the internet: what should we do?” the company noted in a post on its site. The answer came from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“You should melt them,” the actor, whose Terminator humanoid robot character famously met its demise in a vat of molten steel, responded to CEO Brett Adock’s X post.
Figure contacted Schwarzenegger, who agreed to take part, and the company began looking for a foundry willing to accept an entire humanoid robot containing lithium-ion batteries. Figure said foundries in the U.S. and Mexico declined, and even former MythBusters were contacted during the search.
How It All Went Down
The company eventually found a willing site in Imatra, Finland. Figure stressed that the resulting footage of the unusual decommissioning, featuring Schwarzenegger himself, was not AI-generated and that the robots were actually trained to jump, shipped to Finland and sent autonomously into molten steel.
Before shipping the robots overseas, Figure began training them at its San Jose campus. The company set up large airbags and taught the robots to jump from the second floor of one of its buildings. Using stunt performers as references, Figure trained a new AI model in simulation so the robots could jump accurately into a bucket of molten steel at a foundry the team had never visited.
The Finnish foundry uses three large graphite electrodes to power a 75-ton electric arc furnace. Figure said the team had 24 hours and six melts to complete the stunt, with each melt offering about a 20-minute window before the steel cooled enough to form a hard crust.
According to Figure, despite the heat and strong electromagnetic fields, the robots continued running their AI policies while some cameras and other electronics failed. After the Figure 02 units were melted, the resulting metal was shipped back to the U.S. where Figure said it is machining the steel into a limited series of commemorative artifacts.
The company pointed out that most of the Figure 02 fleet has now been destroyed, with only a small number remaining in storage at the company’s headquarters.