AI robot company decommissioned its robots ‘Terminator-style’ in a 75-ton vat of molten steel
AI Robotics company Figure found a creative way of decommissioning its old F.02 fleet without having to allocate resources for difficult and time-consuming disassembly.
Figure, a robotics company based in the United States, recently chose a unique method to decommission its older AI robots, known as the F.02 fleet. Rather than simply retiring the robots or passing them off to another party, Figure decided to give its older machines a dramatic send-off by submerging them in a 75-ton vat of molten steel.
CEO Brett Adcock reached out to social media for ideas on how to properly retire the F.02 robots, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, responding to Adcock's post, suggested that they be melted down. Thus, the company proceeded with this "Terminator-style" decommissioning process. The journey to complete the decommissioning was filled with challenges.
First, Figure trained its robots to jump from the second story of its office building onto an airbag, requiring the precision of stunt artists. Then, the company found a foundry in Finland that was willing to accept the robots with lithium batteries being dumped into the molten steel. Despite the extreme heat and electromagnetic fields generated during the process, the F.02 robots functioned as intended until the very end.
The molten metal bars were later turned into limited-edition memorabilia, commemorating the end of the F.02 fleet. Most of the robots have already been recycled, with a few remaining in storage at Figure's headquarters. This dramatic decommissioning has freed up space for Figure's newer F.03 models and provided a unique addition to the company's history.
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