Nvidia, Google DeepMind, and Disney Research are developing a physical engine for robots that will provide more realistic movements. Nvidia has partnered with Google DeepMind and Disney Research to develop Newton, an open-source physics engine for robot development that can provide real-time simulation with greater precision.
CEO Jensen Huang was joined on stage at Nvidia GTC Tuesday by “Blue,” one of Disney’s BDX droids to show just how impressive the technology can be.
Powered by two Nvidia computers inside, Blue’s Newton is built on Nvidia’s Warp framework.
Newton will be optimized for robot learning and designed to work with simulation frameworks such as Google DeepMind’s MuJoCo and NVIDIA Isaac Lab. and the companies plan to enable it to use Disney’s physics engine.
“Can you imagine right now what you are looking at is complete real-time simulation. This is how we’re going to train robots in the future,” Huang told the audience during his keynote.
Disney Research would be one of the first to use Newton to advance its robotic character platform and bring more characters to life.
World’s First Open Humanoid Robot Foundation Model
Huang said during his keynote that Nvidia is making enormous progress in robotics. “There are three AI infrastructures we are building: AI infrastructure for cloud, AI infrastructure for enterprise and AI infrastructure for robots,” he said. Huang announced that Groot N1 is open-sourced, making it the world’s first humanoid robot foundation model.
These customizable models will be released to robotics developers worldwide “accelerating the transformation of industries challenged by global labor shortages estimated at more than 50 million people,” according to Nvidia.
“The age of generalist robotics is here,” said Huang. “With Nvidia Isaac Groot N1 and new data-generation and robot-learning frameworks, robotics developers everywhere will open the next frontier in the age of AI.”
“The BDX droids are just the beginning,” said Kyle Laughlin, senior vice president at Walt Disney Imagineering research and development in a statement. “We’re committed to bringing more characters to life in ways the world hasn't seen before and this collaboration with Disney Research, Nvidia and Google DeepMind is a key part of that vision.
“This collaboration will allow us to create a new generation of robotic characters that are more expressive and engaging than ever before and connect with our guests in ways that only Disney can.”
Source: iotworldtoday.com