Figure robots complete eight-hour test shift

Figure said on May 13 that a team of its humanoid robots completed an eight-hour autonomous test shift, handling repetitive logistics work without direct human control in a public livestream. The San Jose, California, company framed the demonstration as a durability test for Helix-02, the control system it introduced in January for full-body robot autonomy. The video spread widely on social platforms the same day, extending Figure’s pattern of using long, unedited demos to answer skepticism about whether humanoids can do useful work for hours rather than minutes. (figure.ai 1) (figure.ai 2) Figure did not release an independent third-party audit of the shift, but it did publish earlier technical and manufacturing updates that help explain what viewers were seeing. ### What did Figure actually show during the eight-hour run? Figure’s May 13 demonstration showed robots moving packages in a logistics-style setup over a full workday-length session, according to coverage of the livestream and the company’s own Helix materials. The task was familiar: pick up packages, orient them correctly, and transfer them through a conveyor workflow. Figure has described package handling and label orientation as a core logistics use case since February 2025. (humanoidsdaily.com) Brett Adcock, Figure’s founder and chief executive, had publicly said the company would show robots “running a full 8-hr shift at human performance levels,” according to reports that cited his posts on X. The livestream format mattered because it reduced the room for selective editing that often surrounds robotics demos. ### What is Helix-02, the system behind the demo? Figure introduced Helix-02 on January 27 as a full-body autonomy system that connects walking, balancing and manipulation in one continuous control stack. (humanoidsdaily.com) The company said the system links onboard vision, touch and proprioception directly to the robot’s actuators through a unified visuomotor neural network. The January technical write-up said Helix-02 had already completed a four-minute dishwasher task with no resets and no human intervention. Figure said that result combined locomotion and manipulation across an entire room, extending the earlier Helix model, which the company unveiled on February 20, 2025 as a vision-language-action model for generalist humanoid control. (robohorizon.com) Figure also said Helix-02 relies on a learned whole-body controller trained on more than 1,000 hours of human motion data and sim-to-real reinforcement learning. (figure.ai) In the same post, the company said the system replaced 109,504 lines of hand-engineered C++ with a learned controller. ### Why was the task a logistics workflow instead of a factory assembly line? Figure has spent more than a year using logistics as a proving ground because the work is repetitive, measurable and easier to benchmark over long stretches. (figure.ai) Its February 2025 logistics post described package sorting as a basic warehouse operation, and a June 2025 update said Helix had expanded from rigid boxes to deformable poly bags and flat envelopes while moving closer to fully autonomous package sorting. The same June 2025 update said performance had advanced significantly within three months of initial deployment in a logistics environment. (figure.ai) That history helps explain why the May 13 endurance test centered on parcel handling rather than a broader household or factory scenario. ### How much of this is software progress, and how much is hardware? Figure’s October 2025 launch of Figure 03 said the robot was redesigned around Helix, with new sensors and a new hand system aimed at improving reasoning and manipulation. (figure.ai) The company also said Figure 03 was built for high-volume manufacturing and lower production cost. A July 2025 battery update said the Figure 03 battery pack provided 2.3 kilowatt-hours and up to five hours of run time at peak performance, with 2-kilowatt fast charging. (figure.ai) That specification suggests an eight-hour shift likely depends on either moderated duty cycles, fleet rotation, charging breaks or some combination, though Figure did not provide a detailed public breakdown of energy management for the May 13 run. That inference is based on Figure’s published battery figures and livestream reports describing multiple robots in operation. (figure.ai) ### How far along is Figure in building these robots at scale? Figure said on April 29 that BotQ, its manufacturing facility, had delivered more than 350 Figure 03 robots and increased production from one robot per day to one per hour in less than 120 days. The company first introduced BotQ in March 2025 and said the first-generation line would be capable of producing up to 12,000 humanoids a year. BMW has also been part of Figure’s operating history. Figure said in a November 2025 update that Figure 02 robots logged more than 1,250 operational hours and contributed to the production of 30,000 cars at BMW, data the company said informed the design of Figure 03. (figure.ai) ### What comes next after the shift demo? Figure’s May 8 post showed two Helix-02 robots resetting a bedroom in under two minutes, and its website says Figure 03 is aimed at both commercial work and home tasks. The company has paired those household demos with logistics and factory updates, suggesting it plans to keep publishing task-specific milestones rather than a single launch date for broad deployment. (figure.ai) April 29 is the clearest near-term milestone Figure has published: scaling Figure 03 production at BotQ beyond the 350 units already delivered and beyond the one-per-hour pace it reported then. (figure.ai) Figure’s news page remains the company’s main source for the next technical or deployment update. (figure.ai) (figure.ai)