While you were catching some shut-eye, the machines were busy putting in a shift. Figure AI, Inc. founder and CEO Brett Adcock has announced that the company’s humanoid robots are now operating autonomously around the clock, hitting the long-coveted milestone of 24/7 uptime without a single human minder in sight. This relentless work ethic continues through weekends, bank holidays, and the dead of night—because, as it turns out, the robotic workforce of the future doesn’t care for tea breaks or overtime pay.
According to Adcock, reaching this stage was “really hard.” The system now functions like a perfectly synchronised pit crew. When a robot’s battery starts to flag, it autonomously trundles off to a docking station. In a clever bit of robotic etiquette, a second, fully charged unit vacates the dock to make room, ensuring the incoming worker can start juicing up immediately. This replacement is back on the shop floor before the first one has even settled in for its power nap. The robots charge via a 2 kW wireless inductive pad built into their feet, allowing for a full top-up in about an hour.
To prevent the robotic equivalent of “throwing a wobbly,” Figure has also implemented a triage system. If a unit encounters a hardware snag or a software glitch, it removes itself from the line and heads to a designated repair zone. A fresh robot is then seamlessly swapped in from another location to keep the workflow moving, effectively killing off downtime.
Why is this a big deal?
This isn’t just about robots learning how to find a plug socket. Achieving genuine, unassisted 24/7 operation is a massive leap toward making humanoid robots a commercially viable reality. The entire economic argument for automation hinges on reliability and stripping away the need for human intervention. By cracking autonomous charging and self-diagnosed error handling, Figure is tackling the gritty, unglamorous logistics that separate a flashy tech demo from a scalable, deployable workforce. This level of operational maturity could rapidly accelerate the arrival of humanoids in manufacturing and logistics, starting with heavyweight partners like BMW.
