NVIDIA has announced that it is building a new AI platform for all the big names in humanoid robot development, based on a universal foundation model named after the talking tree-like creature from the Marvel Universe.
The Generalist Robot 00 Technology project (GR00T for short) is “a general-purpose base model for humanoid robots. [NVIDIA’s] “We are working to drive innovation in robotics and enabled AI.”
As you might expect from a first introduction, low-level details are somewhat lacking. Figure's GPT Enhancement 01 is designed to enable bots to understand natural language for the next level of interaction with humans, which has been shown to great effect with humanoids.
The technology also allows people to learn new skills by observing humans through video or VR, giving them the tools they need to “navigate, adapt and interact” and work in the real world. Large-scale reinforcement learning is facilitated through applications built on the company's Isaac Sim robotic simulation platform, while training and inference workflows can be orchestrated and delivered through cloud-based services. New tools have also been added to the Isaac suite to support industrial bot development.
NVIDIA also announced some new hardware. The Jetson Thor system-on-a-chip includes a “high-performance CPU” and a next-generation graphics processing unit capable of running models like the GR00T, thanks to a “Transformer Engine delivering 800 teraflops of 8-bit floating point AI performance.”
Towards the end of his keynote speech at the GTC developer gathering in San Jose, California, NVIDIA's always cheerful Jensen Huang took the stage with a line of nine humanoid robots currently in development. He trained on the company's Jetson computer and Isaac Sim robot simulator.
The purpose of the gathering was to demonstrate that the company is developing a new AI platform for Boston Dynamics, Figure AI, Agility Robotics, Unitree Robotics, Apptronik, 1X Technologies, Sanctuary AI, Fourier Intelligence and other leaders in humanoid robot development. It was. Xpeng Robotics.
The pace of development in the field of humanoid robotics has already proven to be incredibly rapid, and with GR00T and other platforms and hardware, NVIDIA hopes to be at the center of it. You can watch Huang's full keynote on the company's YouTube channel or watch the featured robotics promo below:
NVIDIA Robotics: The Journey from AV to Humanoids
Source: NVIDIA