Figure Helix 02: one neural network controls a humanoid's whole body from pixels

2026-01-27★★★★roboticsFigure AIconfidence: high

On 2026-01-27 Figure released Helix 02, a single visuomotor network that maps Figure 03's cameras, touch and proprioception to every actuator; it unloaded and reloaded a dishwasher across a full kitchen in a 4-minute autonomous run, which Figure calls the longest-horizon, most complex autonomous humanoid task to date.

Key facts

Adds System 0: 10M-parameter learned whole-body controller at 1 kHz, trained on 1,000+ hours of retargeted human motion and 200,000+ parallel simulated environments
System 1 at 200 Hz produces full-body joint targets; System 2 handles semantics and language
Dishwasher unload/reload: ~4 min end-to-end, walking + manipulation + balance, no resets or human intervention
First Figure policies using Figure 03 palm cameras and tactile sensing
2026-05-13: Figure livestreamed a team of Figure 03 robots sorting barcoded packages on conveyors for a full 8-hour shift, fully autonomous on Helix-02 and swapping in and out of charging stations; Figure claims 'human performance levels' (company claim, not independently measured)
Figure: 'first demonstration of such long horizon, end-to-end pixels-to-whole body control on a humanoid robot'

What happened

Figure extended its Helix VLA (Feb 2025, upper body only) to full-body control with a new low-level System 0 controller, running on the Figure 03 robot. In May 2026 Figure followed with a demo of two robots tidying a bedroom and making a bed autonomously. On 2026-05-13 Figure livestreamed its robots doing package sorting for a full 8-hour shift with no human intervention, rotating units through charging stations. Figure says they worked at human speed. That is a company claim, and no throughput numbers were independently verified.

Why it matters

It was the first public case of a learned humanoid policy doing minutes-long household tasks end to end from pixels. That set the bar that Gemini Robotics 2 (July) and Helix 2.5 (September) were measured against.

Changelog

2026-09-29: created
2026-09-29: added the 2026-05-13 8-hour-shift livestream (X post + press)

Models

Helix 02 Figure AI · legacy

Videos (2)

Introducing Helix 02

Figure · 2026-01-27 · official

Description by Gemini, which watched the video:

Summary
This official demonstration video from Figure introduces Helix 02, showing a Figure humanoid robot performing end-to-end chores in a kitchen. The robot autonomously opens a dishwasher, unloads plates, cups, and utensils into upper cabinets and drawers, and closes the dishwasher door. There is no spoken voiceover; only the natural operating sounds of the robot and ambient kitchen audio are heard.

What is shown

[00:00–00:04] The video opens with the text overlay "HELIX 02" as the Figure humanoid walks across the kitchen toward the counter.
[00:05–00:16] The robot approaches the dishwasher, bends down, opens the door fully, and pulls out the lower dish rack.
[00:17–00:46] The robot grasps dishes from the lower rack, stands up, pivots to an open upper cabinet, and places the dishes onto the shelf.
[00:48–01:15] The robot bends down again, pulls out the upper rack, picks up cups/mugs, and places them into the upper cabinet.
[01:16–02:22] The robot repeatedly grasps additional glasses/cups from the top rack and shelves them into the upper cabinet.
[02:23–02:53] The robot retrieves silverware/utensils from the dishwasher basket, opens a kitchen drawer, deposits the utensils inside, and shuts the drawer.
[02:54–03:07] The robot retrieves remaining cutlery and places it into the drawer.
[03:08–03:30] The robot slides the dishwasher racks back into place, lifts and pushes the dishwasher door completely shut, and stands upright.
[03:31–03:36] Closing screen displays the Figure logo.

Claims & numbers

None (the video contains no voiceover, text claims, or benchmark metrics beyond the visual title "HELIX 02").

Notable quotes

None (there is no speech in the video).

Assessment
This is an official demonstration video highlighting autonomous whole-body manipulation and locomotion for household tasks. The video appears to be captured continuously in a test kitchen environment at 1x speed with synchronized natural sound, showing successful real-time handling of dishes, drawers, and cabinet doors.

Described by gemini-3.8-flash on 2026-09-29 from the video's audio and frames.

Helix 02 Bedroom Tidy

Figure · 2026-05-08 · demo

Description by Gemini, which watched the video:

Summary
This video, released by robotics company Figure, demonstrates two Figure humanoid robots autonomously tidying a bedroom. The robots coordinate in the shared space to handle routine household chores, including picking up clothing, straightening furniture, disposing of trash, and cooperatively making a bed.

What is shown

[00:01 - 00:16] A Figure humanoid robot walks into the bedroom and opens the interior door.
[00:17 - 00:23] A second robot enters through the open door while the first robot heads toward the bed.
[00:23 - 00:31] One robot picks up a jacket lying on the bed and hangs it onto a coat stand, while the other robot pushes in the office chair at the desk.
[00:32 - 00:52] The desk robot clears crumpled trash from the tabletop and drops it into a wastebasket.
[00:57 - 01:03] The robots adjust and straighten the bed pillows on both sides of the bed.
[01:04 - 01:56] Both robots cooperatively make the bed, grasping opposite sides of the duvet, pulling it flat across the mattress, smoothing out wrinkles, and neatly folding back the upper edge.
[01:57 - 02:07] Upon completing the bedroom tidy, both robots turn and walk out of the room.
[02:09] Closing display of the Figure logo.

Claims & numbers

None (the video contains only ambient room and mechanical motor sounds, with no voiceover, subtitles, or on-screen performance claims).

Notable quotes

None (no spoken dialogue or audio commentary).

Assessment
This is an official demonstration video highlighting multi-robot bimanual manipulation and cooperative task execution in a staged residential environment. The sequence appears continuous without obvious jump cuts during task execution, though it is a clean showcase setting without human obstacles or unexpected interruptions.

Described by gemini-3.8-flash on 2026-09-29 from the video's audio and frames.

Related events

2026-09-17Figure Helix 2.5: humanoids do chores zero-shot in 30 never-seen homes ★★★★★
2026-08-25Figure launches Index, a paid crowdsourced human-video pipeline to train humanoids ★★★★
2026-08-26Altman says OpenAI will "definitely" build its own humanoid robots ★★★

Sources (7)

id: 2026-01-27-figure-helix-02 · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline