Helix: Figure's Generalist VLA Humanoid Robot

Figure released a 60-minute video of its generalist vision-language-action(VLA) humanoid robot Helix doing logistics work. “Helix now incorporates touch and short-term memory and it's performance continuously improves over time,” the company explained on X.

Helix is equipped with advanced VLA model capabilities, designed to enhance humanoid robot control by integrating perception, language comprehension, and learned motor skills.

The robot comes with 35 degrees of freedom, including human-like wrists, hands, and fingers, allowing for nuanced movements and interactions. It can operate at speeds surpassing human performance while maintaining precision, thanks to its "Sport Mode."

Helix uses a single set of neural network weights to handle all behaviors, such as picking, placing, drawer operation, refrigeration tasks, and multi-robot interactions, without task-specific fine-tuning. This Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model enables the robot to interpret spoken commands, reason through tasks, and manipulate various objects in real time.

The robot can operate simultaneously on two robots, enabling them to work together on shared, long-term manipulation tasks involving objects they have not encountered before.

Helix runs entirely on embedded GPUs, making it suitable for immediate real-world application and avoiding the latency and dependency issues of cloud-based systems.

The robot comprises System 1 (S1) and System 2 (S2). S2 is a slower, internet-pre-trained VLM that focuses on scene understanding and language comprehension, while S1 provides rapid, real-time visuo-motor control.

Helix can identify and manipulate a wide range of household objects without needing specific training for each object. It can pick up thousands of novel household items with varying shapes, sizes, colors, and material properties never encountered before in training simply by asking in natural language.

The robot can understand and respond to natural language commands, allowing users to instruct it to perform tasks without needing to provide detailed instructions.

These advancements make Helix a significant step forward in the field of humanoid robotics, enabling more practical and versatile applications in both home and industrial settings.