Sinister-looking new humanoid robot car maker giant BMW has been secretly testing at a high-tech plant in the USA.
The bot, codenamed Figure 02, is considered by the German auto manufacturer to be the most advanced in development today.
Official footage from the factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, shows the robot being powered up to begin a series of tests recreating conditions in a real-life factory.
Looking worryingly like the killer NS-5 bots from the hit Will Smith movie ‘I, Robot’ the test model swivels its joints to show its superhuman flexibility.
Then, eerily, it seems to flex one of its hands into a fist before it goes walkabout in a replica production line.
As it walks to a workstation it passes other bots all busy with their own tasks.
At 5.6 feet tall and 154 lbs, the robot is the right size to one-day work side by side with human workers on a real-life production line.
But as it goes through its paces, its abilities show how it could already be outpacing humans in the factory.
Its incredibly flexible wrists and fingers, with 16 degrees of freedom, can manoeuvre parts into millimetre-perfect positions that human joints could never manage.
And even if it makes a mistake its state-of-the-art AI makes sure it corrects it and never repeats it.
The BMW footage shows it making a deliberate error and adapting so it can fix it on the spot and not hold up the line.
The bot has been developed by California-based tech hub Figure, a USD 2.6 billion (GBP 2 billion) startup backed by Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
It boasts three times the processing power of an earlier model, enhanced voice communication, better cameras, mics, and sensors plus a high-performance battery.
Figure 02’s hands mimic human strength, enabling it to manage intricate tasks with surgical precision.
It can pick up objects as heavy as 55 lbs, coordinate both of its hands, put parts in place accurately, and walk dynamically, says the car maker.
BMW spokesperson Benedikt Torka said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “The robot is capable of fully autonomous execution of human-like and two-handed tasks requiring varied and dynamic manipulation, complex grasping, and coordination of both hands in unison.”
The company is now evaluating how it can be used safely in car production, he added.
BMW board member Milan Nedeljkovic said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “The developments in the field of robotics are very promising.
“With an early test operation, we are now determining possible applications for humanoid robots in production.
“We want to accompany this technology from development to industrialisation.”
Figure Founder and CEO Brett Adcock added: “We are excited to unveil Figure 02, our second-generation humanoid robot, which recently completed successful testing at the BMW Group Plant Spartanburg.
“Figure 02 has significant technical advancements, which enable the robot to perform a wide range of complex tasks fully autonomously.”
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Story By: Georgina Jedikovska, Sub-Editor: Georgina Jedikovska, Agency: Newsflash
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