NVIDIA Powered Robots Of GTC Will Deliver Your Dinner, Pick Strawberries And Save You From Industrial Disaster

One of the robots on display was a quadruped unit that showcases NVIDIA Robot Simulation technology. The simulation software allows developers to test their latest creations in a virtual environment to work out the kinks before deploying them in a production/real-world setting. 

In the live demo above, you can see the quadruped balancing on a platform that is resting atop a cylinder. The robot is able to balance its weight over the center of the cylinder without tipping too far backwards or forwards. It requires a lot of minute movements from the robot to accomplish such a feat, and all of these movements are being monitored in software in a simulated version of the real-world environment that we see. 

The robot in question looks a lot like the Spot and Spot Mini autonomous robots that we’ve seen from Boston Dynamics, however, this one is tethered, lest it “break loose” and start terrorizing show attendees. 

Also, on display was the Sarcos Robotics Guardian S snake robot (featured in the second part of the above video), which is powered by NVIDIA’s Jetson TX1 platform. This thing is definitely a bit on the creepy side, and features a long, snake-like body with high articulation. It also features a track system similar to a tank that allows it to climb up and down stairs, making it incredibly mobile… and we’ll say it again, creepy.

However, its slender frame and “go anywhere” mobility makes the Guardian S a perfect tool for surveying disaster areas (i.e. collapsed buildings), where it could snake its way through narrow passageways looking for survivors.

Other robots on display included the Argobot Autonomous Harvester, which has a whopping 18 Jetson TX1 engines, but can scale to over 30. The robot is capable of harvesting six acres of strawberries per day, and does it better and more efficiently than a human can. It preserves fruit quality by clipping the stem, and isn’t as prone to making mistakes as its human counterpart, while also not introducing human bacteria into the equation.

Finally, we laid eyes on the Postmates Serve Delivery Bot, which was first unveiled back in mid-December. The Serve’s brains come from NVIDIA’s Jetson AGX Xavier platform, and is destined to provide “last mile” coverage within a Postmates delivery area for food and beverages. 

With that in mind, the Serve robot is configured with both heated and cooled compartment to ensure that your meal arrives at its final destination just as intended. According to Postmates, Serve can travel up 30 miles on a single charge and can carry 50 pounds of cargo.

Stay tuned for more cool hardware and gadgets that we’ve spied on the show floor at GTC 2019.