This past week, the German robotics company Neura published a video showing their 4NE-1 humanoid robot carrying out a range of tasks, including transporting boxes and ironing. At the Siggraph conference in Colorado, Nvidia is presenting a plethora of new tools for humanoids when the promotional film appears.
Among the dozen or so companies that received early access to Nvidia’s humanoid development and deployment tools is Neura. 1X, Boston Dynamics, ByteDance Research, Field AI, Figure, Fourier, Galbot, LimX Dynamics, Mentee, RobotEra, and Skild AI are among the other companies on the list.
In the developing form factor, a few of the most well-known names include 1X, Figure, and Boston Dynamics. Neura has been making fun of the 4NE-1 for a while now, but it doesn’t seem like the project is far along as the company has been concentrating on more conventional form factors for the industrial environment.
David Reger, the CEO of Neura, offered to give the bot a closer look in July when we talked at Automate during a panel discussion on humanoid robotics that also included representatives from Boston Dynamics, Agility, and Apptronik. While there were a few robots on display during the event, none of them were operational, so participants could only use them as props for photos.
In a way, 4NE-1 is accomplishing more in this week’s video than we have observed from other humanoids in space. But one should always take humanoids with a grain of salt, especially those that have a lot of close-ups and studio editing. These movies in particular don’t accurately depict the possibilities of the device, as we’ve already mentioned.
For its part, Neura is showcasing its involvement with Nvidia’s robotics portfolio and announcing its arrival on the scene in the film. “We will accelerate the advancement of humanoid robotics by merging Neura’s cutting-edge cognitive robotics solutions with Nvidia’s sophisticated computing power and simulation platforms,” Reger stated in a statement related to the announcement.
The film combines views of the bot in actual situations with simulations used to test and train these systems. These kinds of videos should always be viewed with a degree of skepticism until we are able to witness systems execute repeated tasks in real-world circumstances at scale.
Like any other firm working on a humanoid, I would really like to see a lot more uncut footage of 4NE-1 operating in the field. All humanoids in the field are still in the pilot level, with the exception of Agility’s collaboration with the massive logistics company GXO. But even that agreement is a long way from being implemented on a truly large scale, similar to what we’ve seen with autonomous mobile robots.
Nevertheless, Nvidia’s dedication to the humanoid platform is a positive sign for the emerging field. Without a doubt, it will also have a significant impact on quickening the pace of development and providing opportunities for additional new players.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated in a statement that “humanoid robots are one of the most exciting developments in robotics, which is the next wave of AI.” “We’re advancing the entire Nvidia robotics stack, granting access to the platforms, acceleration libraries, and AI models most suited for use by humanoid developers and companies worldwide.”