European Robot Makers Use NVIDIA Tech for AI-Driven Fleets

European manufacturers are facing significant challenges due to labor shortages and the increasing demand for sustainability. To address these issues, leading companies and robot developers are collaborating with NVIDIA to create safe, AI-driven robots and industrial technologies. At NVIDIA GTC Paris, held at VivaTech, NVIDIA unveiled new tools and updates to support this transformation. One of the key releases is the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T N1.5, an open foundation model for humanoid robot reasoning and skills. Available for download on Hugging Face, this update enhances the model's adaptability and instruction-following capabilities, making it more effective for material handling and manufacturing tasks. Complementing this, the NVIDIA Isaac Sim 5.0 and Isaac Lab 2.2, open-source robotics simulation and learning frameworks, are optimized for NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 workstations and are available on GitHub for developer preview. NVIDIA Halos, a comprehensive safety system, has expanded to cover the entire development lifecycle of AI-driven robots. This system unifies hardware architecture, AI models, software, tools, and services to ensure safety and reliability. The NVIDIA Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab has received accreditation from the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) for functional safety inspections in both automotive and robotics sectors. This accreditation helps ensure that developers meet the highest benchmarks for functional safety. Several leading robotics companies are already leveraging NVIDIA’s technologies to enhance their products and processes. Agile Robots, for example, is post-training the GR00T N1 model in Isaac Lab to improve its dual-arm manipulator robots, which are deployed in industrial environments using NVIDIA Jetson hardware. Idealworks has adopted the Mega NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint for robotic fleet simulation, extending its capabilities to humanoid robots and supporting tasks like object manipulation. Neura Robotics is integrating the NVIDIA Isaac platform to refine its MiPA service robot’s behavior in complex scenarios, collaborating with SAP and NVIDIA to integrate SAP Joule agents. Vorwerk is utilizing NVIDIA technologies to power its AI-driven collaborative robots, specifically by post-training the GR00T N1 models in Isaac Lab and deploying them on Jetson modules for advanced home robotics. Humanoid, another company, is using the full NVIDIA robotics stack, including Isaac Sim and Isaac Lab, to cut its prototyping time by six weeks. Training on NVIDIA DGX B200 systems, Humanoid’s robots are equipped with enhanced cognitive abilities, operating autonomously in intricate environments with Jetson Thor onboard computing. Universal Robots has introduced the UR15, its fastest collaborative robot yet, to the European market. The UR15 leverages the NVIDIA Isaac platform, enabling manufacturers to build AI applications that infuse the robot with intelligence. Wandelbots is showcasing its NOVA Operating System, now integrated with Omniverse, to simulate, validate, and optimize robotic behaviors before physical deployment. The company has also partnered with EY and EDAG to provide a scalable automation platform that accelerates the transition from proof of concept to full-scale deployment. Extend Robotics is using the Isaac GR00T platform to control and train robots for industrial tasks, such as visual inspection and handling radioactive materials. SICK is integrating new certified sensor models into NVIDIA Isaac Sim, enabling engineers to design, test, and validate machines using SICK’s perception models. Toyota Material Handling is working with SoftServe to simulate its autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and refine AI algorithms before real-world deployment. NVIDIA’s partner ecosystem is crucial in advancing the use of AI in robotics. Companies like Arcbest, Advantech, Bluewhite, Boston Dynamics, FORT, Inxpect, KION, NexCobot, and Synapticon are joining the Halos Inspection Lab to ensure their products meet NVIDIA safety and cybersecurity standards. The integration covers various aspects, from product development to large-scale robotic fleet management. Rev Lebaredian, vice president for Omniverse and simulation technology at NVIDIA, emphasized the importance of a virtual-first approach. Customers start with building a virtual facility in Omniverse for planning and processing optimization, then use the same digital twin for training, testing, and simulating robots. Partners like BMW and Mercedes-Benz are already in advanced stages of this process, while new entrants like Toyota and Schaeffler are beginning their Omniverse journeys. Siemens and NVIDIA have expanded their partnership to integrate Siemens’ Xcelerator marketplace with NVIDIA’s Omniverse, generative AI, and robotics. The partnership aims to bring more realistic digital twins and visualization to the global manufacturing market. Siemen’s Industrial Copilot for Operations, optimized for NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, uses generative AI to provide real-time assistance for shop-floor operations, reducing reactive maintenance time by 30%. A new line of Siemens Industrial PCs, certified for NVIDIA GPUs, is designed to withstand harsh industrial conditions, enabling 24/7 operation and complex robotics tasks. These PCs can deliver a 25x acceleration in AI execution, significantly boosting productivity. NVIDIA has also enhanced its simulation capabilities with the DiffusionRenderer, an AI project that uses neural rendering to approximate real-world lighting. This tool is valuable for both physical AI development and creative industries like video game design. Additionally, NVIDIA is building an industrial AI cloud in Germany in partnership with Deutsche Telekom. Starting with 10,000 RTX Pro and B200 GPUs, this installation marks Germany’s largest AI factory deployment and supports the country’s sovereign AI infrastructure. The cloud will feature NVIDIA DGX B200 and RTX PRO servers, accelerating manufacturing applications from engineering to factory digital twins. For autonomous vehicles (AVs), NVIDIA’s Drive software is now in full production. Halos includes DriveOS, a certified framework that ensures reliable operation and meets stringent automotive standards. The company released the Cosmos Predict-2, a new world foundation model that improves future state prediction for high-quality synthetic data generation, leading to safer and more adaptive driving trajectories. The latest version of CARLA, an open-source AV simulator, integrates Cosmos Transfer APIs and NVIDIA NuRec tools for neural reconstruction and rendering. This integration allows over 150,000 AV developers to render synthetic scenes and generate endless variations using simple prompts. Industry insiders are overwhelmingly positive about these developments. According to Lebaredian, the integration of AI and robotics is crucial for addressing the upcoming labor gap, which is expected to reach 50 million people in the next five years. He highlighted that NVIDIA’s approach to autonomy is rapidly maturing, drawing parallels between the development of AVs and general robotics in terms of safety and redundancy. NVIDIA’s extensive partner ecosystem, including leading robotics developers and industrial solution providers, underscores the company’s commitment to driving innovation in AI and robotics. By harnessing advanced simulation, digital twins, and generative AI, European manufacturers are poised to revolutionize their operations, enhancing sustainability and operational efficiency while addressing labor shortages. NVIDIA’s comprehensive suite of tools and its strategic partnerships are setting the stage for a new era of intelligent, safe, and adaptable robotic systems in Europe, positioning the continent as a global leader in the next industrial revolution.