Figure melts down its retired F.02 humanoid fleet to protect proprietary hardware

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Figure has retired its F.02 robot fleet, saying it no longer makes sense to maintain it while the F.03 fleet grows. Rather than take the robots apart, which would have cost too much engineering time, Figure had them melted in a foundry in Imatra, Finland, because they contain custom actuators it wants to keep private.

• F.02 was the platform for Figure's first BMW deployment, the first Helix model, its first household-chores robot and its first logistics deployment.
• Figure says disassembly would have delayed the F.04 launch. US and Mexican foundries declined the job because the robots contain lithium-ion batteries.
• The melt used a 75-ton electric arc furnace over 24 hours and six melts of about 20 minutes each, before the steel began to crust.
• The recovered metal was made into a limited run of commemorative F.02 pieces that Figure sells online. A few units are kept in storage at headquarters.
• Figure says its AI policies kept running in extreme heat and electromagnetic fields during the melt, even as cameras and other electronics failed.