Meta Reportedly Built A Humanoid Robot Prototype That Can Do Household Chores

As part of its push into robotics, Meta has built a prototype humanoid robot that’s meant to help out around people’s homes, according to The Information. The report said that the robot, internally codenamed Max, was built with the help of a Chinese robotics company called Fourier in roughly three months.

According to The Information‘s sources, the robot weighs roughly 106 lbs and is about 1.5 meters tall, or approximately five feet tall. On the outside, the prototype reportedly has a display that can show facial expressions, a built-in speaker and hands designed to pick up small objects. Internally, Meta went with NVIDIA’s Jetson Thor chips to power the robot, according to the report.

The Information‘s report said there’s no launch date set for a mass-market version of Max, but that Meta has already been working on a second prototype, codenamed Max 2, since September. The report added that the tech giant is including updates to the design of the robot’s torso and hands, as well as adding a projector and additional sensors to help it handle stairs better.

Meta’s efforts to break into humanoid robots began as early as last year after Bloomberg reported that the company created a new team tasked with building robot hardware with the eventual goal of being able to do household chores. Following that report, Meta acquired a startup that’s known for building artificial intelligence specifically for robots, earlier this year.