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NVIDIA launches open humanoid reference design to unify physical AI development

NVIDIA announced the Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot, the first open reference design (a standardized blueprint) for humanoid research. The system integrates a Unitree H2 Plus chassis and Sharpa Wave tactile hands with onboard NVIDIA Jetson Thor compute. This unified platform joins the launch of NVIDIA's Physical AI Agent Skills to provide a full stack from data capture to deployment.
Humanoid Chassis
Unitree H2 Plus
Dexterous Hands
Sharpa Wave tactile five-finger hands
Total Degrees of Freedom
75
Onboard Compute
NVIDIA Jetson Thor T5000
AI Performance
2070 FP4 teraflops

This launch addresses the fragmented nature of humanoid development, where researchers struggle with custom hardware integration. By providing a common foundation, NVIDIA is positioning itself as the infrastructure provider for physical AI (AI that interacts with the physical world). This strategy contrasts with OpenAI, which recently expanded its robotics division to manufacture hardware.

Research teams can use the design to validate robot behaviors using NVIDIA Cosmos 3 and Isaac GR00T models. The full reference robot will be available from Unitree in late 2026, while a reference workflow for the Unitree G1 robot is expected to release soon on GitHub. Leading research institutions like Stanford and ETH Zurich will use the design to advance frontier robotics research.

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News at #NVIDIAGTC Taipei: NVIDIA announces the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot, the first open humanoid robot reference design for robotics research. Read the release ⬇️ https://t.co/G46tIwZvpf

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The NVIDIA Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot is an open platform designed to standardize humanoid robotics research. It combines a human-scale robot body with dexterous hands and onboard AI compute, providing a unified hardware and software stack for developing general-purpose physical intelligence without requiring proprietary platforms.

The reference design features a Unitree H2 Plus humanoid chassis standing nearly 6 feet tall and dual Sharpa Wave tactile five-finger hands. It is powered by the NVIDIA Jetson Thor T5000 onboard compute module, which includes a Blackwell GPU capable of 2,070 FP4 teraflops of AI performance.

The full NVIDIA Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot is scheduled for availability from Unitree in late 2026. However, NVIDIA plans to release a reference workflow for the smaller Unitree G1 humanoid robot soon on GitHub and Hugging Face for immediate developer use.

Several leading research institutions have committed to using the reference design, including the Stanford Robotics Center, ETH Zurich, Ai2, and UC San Diego’s Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory. These teams will use the platform to advance frontier research in robot perception, manipulation, and whole-body control.

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