Boston Dynamics plans to use NVIDIA’s Isaac GR00T to build AI capabilities for Atlas

Aaron Saunders, the CTO of Boston Dynamics, will discuss Atlas in his keynote at the Robotics Summit & Expo. | Source: Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics Inc. last week announced that it has expanded its collaboration with NVIDIA Corp. to build the next generation of artificial intelligence capabilities for humanoid robots.

As an early adopter of NVIDIA’s Isaac GR00T framework, Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot uses the NVIDIA Jetson Thor computing platform. Jetson Thor‘s compact size, high performance, and efficiency allow Atlas to run complex, multimodal AI models that work with Boston Dynamics’ whole-body and manipulation controllers, the companies said.

“Robots are the bridge between simulation and the real world,” stated Aaron Saunders, chief technology officer at Boston Dynamics.

“With the current generation of our electric Atlas, we are building the world’s most capable humanoid,” he added. “Collaborating with NVIDIA to integrate Jetson Thor means that robot now has the highest-performance compute platform behind it. Isaac lab is allowing us to develop state-of-the-art AI capabilities, and the early results are exciting.”

NVIDIA and partners advance robot learning

Boston Dynamics noted that it and its research partners are also advancing learned dexterity and locomotion AI policies using Isaac Lab. The open-source, modular framework for robot learning in physically accurate virtual environments is built on NVIDIA’s Isaac Sim and Omniverse technologies.

NVIDIA and Boston Dynamics are collaborating to define key platform parameters including functional safety and security architectures, as well as key learning and computer vision pipelines using NVIDIA’s training and simulation platforms. The companies announced their latest joint efforts at NVIDIA’s GTC event last week.

In addition to the ongoing work on Atlas, Boston Dynamics has continued introducing new AI capabilities for Spot, the company‘s quadruped robot, and Orbit, its robot fleet management and data analysis software. Boston Dynamics said new reinforcement learning (RL) tools are improving Spot’s locomotion control, while advanced foundation models are helping it avoid specific hazards that might appear in its path.

Boston Dynamics to share Atlas insights at Robotics Summit

Humanoids will be prominent at the Robotics Summit & Expo, which will be on April 30 and May 1 in Boston and is produced by WTWH Media, parent organization of The Robot Report.

Saunders will open the summit with his keynote, “Redesigning Atlas: Boston Dynamics on the Future of Humanoids.” During this session, he will unpack the RBR50 award-winning electric Atlas and share insights from being at the forefront of humanoid development for years.

This keynote will explore the challenges and opportunities of building humanoids for real-world applications. It will also offer a behind-the-scenes look at how Boston Dynamics continues to push the limit of robotics.

In addition to Saunders’ opening keynote, the first day of the event will feature a panel on the state of humanoids with Pras Velagapudi, chief technology officer at Agility Robotics; Aaron Prather, director of robotics and autonomous systems at ASTM International; and Al Makke, director of engineering at Schaeffler.

They will explore the technical and business challenges shaping the development of humanoids. The panelists will also share insights from early deployments, the ongoing efforts to establish safety standards, and what’s on the horizon.

The Robotics Summit & Expo will bring together more than 5,000 developers focused on building robots for a variety of commercial applications. Attendees can gain insights into the latest enabling technologies, engineering best practices, and emerging trends.