But Helix completely flips this script by finally using Vision-Language models, which excel at understanding scenes and language, and translating them into instant robotic actions for the real world. This results in the distillation of the VLM’s common-sense smarts into flexible, real-time control, with Helix allowing robots to learn as fast as humans can speak to them. But it’s all made possible with the following five first-ever tech breakthroughs. 1. Full upper body control Helix sets a new bar as the first VLA to orchestrate a humanoid’s entire upper body at 200 Hz, managing a 35-degree of freedom action space.

From wrist twists to finger flexors, torso shifts to head tilts, it handles it all with precision. Moving the head or torso alters reach and sight lines, a feedback loop that’s tripped up past systems, yet Helix thrives, with video demos showing a figure robot tracking its hands with its head, adjusting its torso, and grasping objects delicately, all in sync. This whole body coordination, once a pipe dream for high-dimensional tasks, finally equips Helix to tackle intricate jobs like arranging a table or sorting laundry with a human-like touch. 2. Multi-Robot collaboration Helix breaks more ground as the first-ever vision-language action model to synchronize two robots for shared, long-horizon tasks without prior training.

In fact, this was demonstrated with two-figure robots teaming up to store groceries, grabbing items like crinkly bags or odd-shaped veggies that they’ve never seen before. One passes a cookie bag to the other, which stashes it in a drawer, guided by verbal prompts. Both of these robots run identical Helix weights with no custom roles needed. Impressively, this level of zero-shot collaboration is a VLA first, hinting at a future where robot teams can adapt to work together dynamically, and this brings us to the next breakthrough from Helix. 3. The pick-up-anything emergence One of Helix’s standout features is its emergent ability, allowing figure robots to pick up nearly any small household object with a casual verbal command to pick that up.

And tests show it can handle thousands of novel items, including glassware, toys, tools, and even messy clothes, all in cluttered environments with no demos required. For example, when told to pick up the desert item, Helix spots a toy cactus, picks the best hand, and grabs it securely. This language-to-action magic fuses internet-scale comprehension with precise control, making robots as adaptable as your imagination. This finally makes it possible for humanoids to thrive in unpredictable settings with no pre-programming at all, because by simply being told to pick something up, the robot can just learn how on the spot all by itself, bringing us to the next first ever breakthrough from Helix.

4. One unified neural network Unlike earlier vision-language action models that needed task-specific tweaks or multiple action heads, Helix excels with a single neural network, totaling 7 billion parameters for planning and another 80 million parameters for control. This lone model powers picking and placing, operating drawers and fridges, and multi-robot handovers, all while generalizing to new objects with no fine-tuning and no extra stages, just raw versatility. This simplicity opens the door to scalability in learning, allowing Helix to rival specialized systems while only having a fraction of their complexity. In fact, it’s almost like the robot has a unified brain for its expanding repository of talents, streamlining its path to widespread use.

And that brings us to tech breakthrough number 5, commercial readiness. Helix is the first VLA fully operational on-figure robots embedded low-power GPUs, ready for commercial action today. Its dual system setup uses the robot’s System 2 at 7-9 Hz for big-picture thinking, and its System 1 at 200 Hz for instant action, splitting the work across dual GPUs to ensure seamless performance. System 2 is a VLM trained on vast internet data, and it decodes scenes and commands, while System 1 executes with real-time responsiveness. And being trained to match onboard latency, Helix runs as fast as single-task policies, but with no external compute needed.

This practicality makes it a plug-and-play solution for real-world deployment, from homes to service industries, out of the box. But the entire secret to Helix really revolves around its core System 1 System 2 design, which finally solves a classic robotics dilemma. VLMs generalize but lag, while Visua motor policies speed but stagnate. To solve this, Helix’s AI System 2 thinks slow, at a speed of just 7-9 Hz, processing images and prompts into a semantic vector. This takes place while Helix’s AI System 1 thinks fast at 200 Hz, turning it into precise movements and adjusting mid-action as needed.

Plus, because it’s built with open-source components and trained on 500 hours of teleoperated data, Helix is extremely lean and uses just 5% of typical VLA datasets. As a result, its decoupled systems evolve independently, blending speed, scalability and simplicity into a powerhouse model. And unlike earlier robot systems, Helix generates long-horizon, collaborative, dexterous manipulation on the fly, with no task-specific demos or extensive coding needed. On top of this, it boasts strong object generalization, picking up thousands of novel household items, varying in shape, size, color and texture, simply by request. Soon Helix could evolve to orchestrate full household tasks like cooking meals, assembling furniture or managing chores with a single command.

Not only that, but multi-robot teams maintaining entire spaces could even work together, adapting to new tools or layouts instantly, or even assisting humans with intuitive language-guided care. As Helix matures, it will likely be the backbone on top of which domestic robots borrow from, blending seamlessly into our routines with human-like flexibility. This leap forward is pivotal for Figur’s mission to scale humanoid behaviors for everyday homes. As for the future, Helix is a launchpad for the next figure humanoid robots, which are expected to ramp up production later this year. For the next leaps in dexterity and intelligence, scaling to cooking entire meals or furniture assembly could push the boundaries even further towards real-life home robots.

When combining all five breakthroughs of full-body control, multi-robot synchronization, universal grasping, unified weights, and commercial viability, they all begin to paint a clearer picture of the future. Excitingly, this future looks like it will involve a generally intelligent R2D2 or C3P bro that is your best friend and can hang out, do chores, or work together with other robots to complete tasks you tell it to by voice command. These robots can effectively learn on the fly, which leads to countless new possibilities, with Helix being the first vision-language action model to directly control an entire humanoid upper body from natural language.

But how hard would it be for a hacker to execute tasks remotely? Anyways, like and subscribe and tell us in the comments whether you’d trust this robot in your home, how much you’d pay for it, and thanks for watching. [tr:trw].