Nvidia announces GR00T to create robots with embodied AI

By Matthew Griffin Robo Revolution 17th March 2024

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

There is a new hype in town – generalised robots that can do anything and learn anything almost independently, and embodied AI and AGI is helping them achieve new highs.

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The age of humanoid robots could be a significant step closer thanks to a new release from Nvidia. The computing giant has announced the launch of Project GROOT, its new foundational Artificial Intelligence (AI) model aimed at helping the development of such robots in industrial use cases.

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Revealed at Nvidia GTC 2024, the company says its new launch will enable robots to be smarter and more functional than ever before – and they’ll do so by watching humans.

Announcing the launch of Project GROOT (standing for “Generalist Robot 00 Technology”) on stage at Nvidia GTC 2024, Jensen Huang, company founder and CEO revealed robots powered by the platform will be designed to understand natural language and emulate movements by observing human actions.

See the unveilling

This will allow them to quickly learn coordination, dexterity and other skills in order to navigate, adapt and interact with the real world – and definitely not lead to a robot uprising at all.

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Huang went on to show off a number of demos which saw Project GROOT-powered robots carry out a number of tasks to show off their potential.

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

The scale of importance for Project GROOT was also highlighted by the fact Nvidia has built a new computing system, Jetson Thor, specifically designed for humanoid robots.

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The SoC includes a GPU based on the latest Nvidia Blackwell architecture, which includes a transformer engine able to delivering 800 teraflops of AI performance, allowing them to run multimodal generative AI models like GR00T.

The company also revealed upgrades to its Nvidia Isaac robotics platform, designed to make robotic arms smarter, more flexible and more efficient than ever – making them a much more appealing choice for factories and industrial use cases across the world.

This includes new collections of robotics pretrained models, libraries and reference hardware aimed at helping faster learning and better efficiency.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.