Photo: Figure AI — YouTube
A humanoid robot developed by Figure AI has processed 12,732 packages in a 10-hour sorting experiment, narrowly losing to a human participant in a head-to-head logistics challenge.
The American robotics company staged a live-streamed test in which its Figure 03 humanoid robot competed against a human worker in a standardized parcel-sorting task. Both participants had to locate a barcode on each package, pick it up, and place it onto a conveyor belt with the barcode facing down.
The human participant worked under California labor regulations and took scheduled breaks for food and rest, while the robot operated continuously and autonomously throughout the 10-hour period.
Despite expectations that fatigue would slow the human down, the final result remained close. The human sorted 12,924 parcels, while the robot completed 12,732—an average speed difference of just 0.04 seconds per package.
Figure AI CEO Brett Adcock commented after the experiment: “This is the last time a human wins.”
Figure AI, founded in 2022 in San Jose, develops humanoid robots for logistics, manufacturing, and domestic tasks. The company has released multiple generations of its robots (Figure 01, Figure 02, and Figure 03) and an AI system called Helix, which integrates vision, language, and action models for autonomous tasks such as unloading dishwashers, folding laundry, and sorting parcels.
In related developments, Sony AI recently introduced an AI robot named Ace, which demonstrated strong autonomy in table tennis matches against amateur players, though it struggled against professional athletes in Japan’s league.
