Nvidia Launches Open Humanoid Robot Platform to Accelerate Physical AI Research

Nvidia introduces the Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot, an open platform engineered to fast‑track advances in physical AI and general‑purpose robotics.

Debuted at GTC Taipei, the kit merges a Unitree H2 Plus humanoid chassis, dual Sharpa Wave tactile five‑finger hands, a Jetson AGX Thor computer powered by a Blackwell GPU, and Nvidia’s Isaac GR00T software stack into a single reference design.

The integration of hardware, data collection, simulation, AI training, and real‑world deployment has long fragmented humanoid research. Isaac GR00T streamlines that workflow, enabling scientists to focus on algorithmic breakthroughs rather than engineering glue code.

“Humanoid robots are poised to bring physical AI to the world’s biggest industries, unlocking a multitrillion‑dollar opportunity,” said Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO. “Our open reference design gives researchers a unified platform for breakthroughs in general‑purpose physical intelligence.”

Key specifications include 31 degrees of freedom on the Unitree H2 body, 22 degrees of freedom per Sharpa Wave hand, and on‑board AI compute that supports both edge inference and cloud‑scale training.

The Isaac GR00T ecosystem offers a full development lifecycle: Isaac Teleop for live data capture, Isaac Sim and Isaac Lab for realistic physics‑based training, Isaac ROS middleware for safe deployment, and open foundation models that accelerate humanoid reasoning and behavior design.

To broaden community adoption, Nvidia also announced support for the Unitree G1 robot, ensuring that the platform serves a wide range of research labs.

Leading institutions such as AI2, ETH Zurich, Stanford Robotics Center, and UC San Diego’s Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory have already pledged to use the platform, citing its openness and the ability to benchmark against a shared hardware baseline.

“When researchers can build on an open platform and share code, robotics advances at an unprecedented pace,” said Steve Cousins, Stanford Robotics Center executive director. “Isaac GR00T gives students and collaborators a tangible, high‑performance humanoid to test and publish.”

Marco Hutter, ETH Zurich professor, added, “The reference design equips our teams with a state‑of‑the‑art platform for data collection, algorithm validation, and real‑world testing.”

The Unitree‑delivered Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot is slated for availability in late 2026.