Why Figure Melted Its Retired F.02 Humanoid Robots

Figure retired most of its F.02 humanoid robots by melting them in a 75-ton electric-arc furnace in Imatra, Finland. The company said maintaining the older fleet no longer made sense as its F.03 fleet grew, while dismantling the robots would consume technical staff time and risk exposing custom-built actuators and other proprietary hardware. 9

The method also turned a practical decommissioning problem into a Terminator 2–inspired send-off: Arnold Schwarzenegger had suggested melting the robots, and later appeared in Figure’s decommissioning film. 49

Why use a furnace?

Figure described two business reasons for retiring the F.02 fleet: the company was moving on to F.03, and it wanted to dispose of hardware containing proprietary components without taking each robot apart. Its announcement said manual disassembly could delay work on F.04. 9

Finding a facility willing to accept the robots was a separate obstacle. Reports say foundries Figure approached in the United States and Mexico declined because the robots contained lithium-ion batteries. Figure ultimately found a willing facility in Imatra. 14

How the robots were prepared

Before shipping the robots to Finland, engineers practiced the jumps at Figure’s San Jose facility, using large airbags as landing targets. Stunt performers provided movement references, and reports describe engineers using simulation to prepare the robots for a jump at a foundry they had not encountered before. 1414

Reports describe the furnace operation as taking place within a 24-hour window and involving six melts or cycles. Those accounts do not provide a detailed, independently verifiable sequence for each melt. 715

What Arnold Schwarzenegger and the stunt performers did

Schwarzenegger suggested the idea of melting the retired robots and took part in the resulting film. Stunt performers contributed movement references during training; the reports describe the robots—not people—as making the furnace jumps. 4914

What happened to the metal—and the robots that remain?

Figure has said it would make limited commemorative artifacts from metal recovered after the robots were melted. 316 A report also says a small number of F.02 robots remain in storage, but the available information does not explain why those units were kept or what Figure plans to do with them. 3

There is also an important limit to what has been reported about the operation: the available sources do not explain how Figure handled the furnace’s effects on robot electronics or describe any specific protective measures. Reports mention extreme temperatures and electromagnetic fields during the furnace operation, but do not establish their precise effects on the robots. 7