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Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot

(www.figure.ai)
392 points lairv | 3 comments | 09 Oct 25 13:27 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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websiteapi ◴[09 Oct 25 14:17 UTC] No.45528053[source]▶
I don't understand why this even has to charge at all. It makes sense for multiple reasons to give it 3 batteries that say have 1/3 of the capacity, and make at least 1, if not 2 or 3 capable of charging independently on a station.

Then the robot would just go to its station and swap its own batteries. Why even have wireless charging at all? Or even a cable? Or even have it "charge"? Battery swapping seems to make way more sense here. Am I missing something?

Bonus points if the robot has data on the degradation and can order its own replacement batteries, take them out of the box, and ship the old ones to a recycling facility...

More bonus points if the charging station is actually outside under a 1KW solar array pergola thing, that way you don't even have to pay for the electricity either. Don't worry, the robot will lock the door when it goes out to grab its batteries. It'll also bring in the whole setup if the weather isn't great.

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AaronAPU ◴[09 Oct 25 14:37 UTC] No.45528314[source]▶
It’s too bad there isn’t some kind of liquid battery which you could just quickly top off at refueling stations with virtually zero downtime.

Yes, like gasoline. But still batteries. Maybe some kind of bearing sized batteries which can be poured like a fluid?

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1. dafelst ◴[09 Oct 25 14:52 UTC] No.45528531[source]▶
You are describing a fuel cell battery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell

Well established and even commercialized (Toyota sells fuel cell cars today IIRC), just not as cost effective in cars from a full infrastructure perspective (fueling specifically).

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2. coderenegade ◴[09 Oct 25 23:25 UTC] No.45534074[source]▶
I think they might mean something closer to a flow battery, where, in principle, you should just be able to replace the electrolytes in a discharged state with new electrolytes in a charged state. Current flow batteries have very low energy density, though.

I've always been partial to fuel cells, and in some ways they're ahead of the curve relative to standard batteries. For instance, solid electrolytes have been a thing for a while in fuel cells, and in both flavors of exchange. The challenge has always been overcoming sluggish kinetics with either better catalysts, or heat. It makes me wonder if there's a useful solid state battery that runs hotter than typical batteries, that would be useful for hybrid automotive applications.

3. AaronAPU ◴[10 Oct 25 01:00 UTC] No.45534552[source]▶
I wasn’t describing that, I was describing individual batteries which are small enough to be effectively liquid in aggregate.