Nvidia Launches Humanoid Robot Platform, Deployed in Disney Robots

Nvidia has launched Project GR00T, a general-purpose foundation model for humanoid robots, at its GTC AI conference taking place this week in San Jose, California. 

Nvidia said the model is designed to further its work in robotics and embodied AI.

GR00T, (Generalist Robot 00 Technology), will be used to power robots, allowing them to understand natural language and mimic human movements, learning dexterity and mobility to navigate and interact with the world. 

In his GTC keynote, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang demonstrated GR00T’s efficacy, showcasing the system deployed in Disney’s BDX robots.

The bipedal robots also leverage Nvidia’s Jetson platform and Isaac Sim for locomotion and navigation capabilities.

As part of the initiative, the company also unveiled a new computer, Jetson Thor, for humanoid robots, based on the Nvidia Thor system-on-a-chip (SoC). The computer was created specifically for humanoid robots, capable of performing complex tasks and interacting safely and naturally with both humans and machines.

Nvidia also announced significant upgrades to its Isaac robotics platform, including generative AI foundation models and tools for simulation and AI workflow infrastructure – built specifically to run thousands of parallel simulations for robot learning.

“Building foundation models for general humanoid robots is one of the most exciting problems to solve in AI today,” said Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO. “The enabling technologies are coming together for leading roboticists around the world to take giant leaps towards artificial general robotics.”

Nvidia also announced a new suite of pretrained models for robotic training; the Isaac Manipulator and Isaac Perceptor. 

The former offers modular AI capabilities for robotic arms, while the latter provides multi-camera, 3D surround-vision capabilities, which is seeing increased popularity in autonomous mobile robots for manufacturing and fulfillment operations.

Potential customers of Nvidia’s new platform include Boston Dynamics, Universal Robots, PickNik Robotics, Agility Robotics, Apptronik, Figure AI and Unitree Robotics, among others.

“We are at an inflection point in history, with human-centric robots poised to change labor forever,” said Jonathan Hurst, chief robot officer at Agility Robotics. “Modern AI will accelerate development, paving the way for robots to help people in all aspects of daily life, 

“We’re excited to partner with Nvidia to invest in the computing, simulation tools, machine learning environments and other necessary infrastructure to enable the dream of robots being a part of daily life.”