Hasta la vista, baby – Figure F.02 humanoid robots decommissioned, T2-style

This one's just a curiosity from the robotics world, not something that touches your home directly. Figure, a company that makes humanoid robots, decided to retire its second-generation F.02 robots in dramatic fashion: it had them walk off a platform and jump into a vat of molten steel at a foundry in Imatra, Finland. The company says no US or Mexican foundry would agree to melt robots still containing lithium-ion batteries, so it had to find one willing to take the risk overseas.

Getting the robots to actually perform the jump took real engineering. Figure trained them using motion-capture data from stunt performers, then practiced the leap with airbags at its California campus before sending the robots to a real industrial furnace they'd never visited. The robots' AI kept working through the extreme heat and electromagnetic interference, even as nearby camera equipment failed.

The melted-down steel didn't just disappear. Figure plans to machine it into a small, limited run of commemorative objects marking the end of the F.02 line, which people will be able to buy. There's no word yet on what those items will look like. For homeowners, this is really just a glimpse at how a robotics company handles proprietary hardware at the end of its life, nothing here relates to home energy upgrades or rebates.