NVIDIA's new Project GROOT: fully humanoid robot to compete against Tesla Optimus AI robot

NVIDIA had plenty to announce during its GPU Technology Conference (GTC) event, with the launch of Project GROOT: a new foundational model that helps in the development of robots for industrial use (and more).

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The new Project GROOT stands for "Generalist Robot 00 Technology," with NVIDIA CEO and founder Jensen Huang teasing robots powered by Project GROOT during GTC 2024, which have been designed to understand natural language and emulate movements made by humans by watching them.

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

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NVIDIA's newly built Jetson Thor computing system has been designed for the humanoid robots within Project GROOT. The new SoC features a GPU based on the newly announced Blackwell GPU architecture. This includes a transformer engine capable of pumping out 800 teraflops of AI performance, which allows it to run multimodal generative AI models like GROOT.

The company also showed off new upgrades to its NVIDIA Isaac robotics platform, which will make robotic arms used around the world not just smarter but also increase flexibility and run more efficiently than ever before. This makes them the perfect choice for AI factories and industrial uses globally.