Patent Title: Humanoid robot data collection system
Patent Number: 12686136
Company: Figure AI Inc.
Inventors: Victor Ragusila, Nathan Jenest, Vadim Chernyak, Corey Lynch, Toki Migimatsu
Training autonomous humanoid robots to perform complex physical tasks requires vast amounts of high-fidelity spatial and kinesthetic data. Addressing this core obstacle in robotics and embodied artificial intelligence, Figure AI Inc. has engineered a specialized teleoperation framework. Their newly patented humanoid robot data collection system utilizes a wearable exoskeleton and sensor suite worn by a human operator to control a humanoid robot in real time. By capturing precise pilot movements and translating them into robot control commands across a low-latency network, this system establishes a reliable pipeline for capturing high-dimensional training data directly from human physical demonstration.
Why This Invention is Innovative
This patent introduces a highly responsive hardware and software telemetry framework that fundamentally bridges the gap between human motor skills and robotic actuation. Traditional teleoperation systems often rely on static rigs, visual cameras, or joysticks that lack tactile intuition, leading to jerky robotic motions and corrupted dataset collection. Figure AI Inc. overcomes these limitations by integrating a wearable apparatus featuring a base mount, articulated arms, and sensor-laden gloves directly coupled to a piloting control engine. The system continuously processes operator movements, generates real-time control signals over a network, and logs synchronization metrics. This allows human operators to seamlessly guide humanoid robots through delicate fine-motor tasks, creating clean, paired datasets of human intent and robot sensor feedback essential for training advanced neural network action models.
August 2026 Patent of the Month for the Robotics-Computer-Engineering Industry
Granted in July 2026, this technology has been rightfully awarded the Patent of the Month for the robotics-computer-engineering industry for August 2026. As the push toward general-purpose humanoid robots accelerates across manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare, the primary bottleneck has shifted from raw hardware engineering to data scarcity. Figure AI Inc. addresses this critical industry barrier by standardizing how real-world physical interactions are gathered and turned into machine learning training pipelines. Recognizing this patent highlights the essential convergence of computer science, human-computer interaction, and hardware engineering, paving the way for scalable, data-driven embodied intelligence.
Practical Applications and R&D Tax Credit Eligibility in the USA
The practical applications of this patent involve advanced robotics, real-time telemetry, and sensor fusion, making the underlying development activities highly eligible for the Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit in the United States. To qualify for this federal tax incentive, a project must satisfy a four-part test: the work must be technological in nature, serve a permitted purpose, seek to eliminate technical uncertainty, and employ a systematic process of experimentation. Developing a wearable data collection framework for humanoid robots requires software and robotics engineers to resolve complex technical uncertainties regarding latency reduction, joint kinematic mapping, and sensor calibration under dynamic operator movements. By meticulously documenting the iterative testing of sensor gloves, network communication protocols, and real-time control algorithms, robotics companies engaging in similar developmental research can successfully claim the R&D tax credit to offset their technical development costs.
