BMW’s robotic humanoid ambitions aren’t confined to the European continent. The motoring company has announced that it’s launching the next iteration of a humanoid assistant at an American factory. Previously, the Figure 02 robot has been serving time at the company’s Spartanburg facility. Now it’s about to be supplanted by Figure 03.
Figure 02 is the creation of Figure AI, a company that specialises in humanoids. The second generation of its humanoid has put in eleven months’ work at the South Carolina facility, which means it’s time for an upgrade.
BMW fights in the shade
BMW Manufacturing vice president Ulrich Wieland said, “Plant Spartanburg is the birthplace of humanoid robotics in BMW Manufacturing’s operational day-to-day activities. Having already successfully completed a pilot with Figure 02 in our body shop, we are now looking forward to deploying Figure 03 for a sequencing use case in logistics.”
Figure 02 helped with welding operations, a job that “demands high speed and accuracy and can be physically demanding.” Figure 03 will have a more delicate task at BMW’s factory, if somewhat less labour-intensive. Softer components, more advanced vision systems, and increased hand dexterity will contribute to the role change.
According to the company, “In the new sequencing use case application, delivered components initially arrive in larger containers, unsorted. Figure 03 will pick them up and sort them into a sequencing trolley. The trolley will then be taken to a defined collection point for onward transport.”
The robot will continue working on the BMW X3 units being manufactured in the States. Eventually, the company’s iX5 will also form part of Figure AI’s robots’ workload. As for human workers, they’ll supposedly be repurposed where BMW can “most effectively utilize” them.
