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It’s my second year of robot hunting Nvidia GTCAnd I met many of them for the first time.
Right when I entered the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, I was greeted by a small IntBot robot that works the crowd, powered by an AI chatbot and controlled by nearby humans for safety. Another, larger IntBot was located behind the information desk, providing directions in multiple languages.
Humanoid, a UK-based company, brought two of its HMND 01 Alpha wheeled robots to demo “fleet control,” a way for one person to easily pilot multiple robots. I ordered a drink and a snack via a touch screen, and both robots engaged at the same time, one picking up my drink and the other picking up my snack.
Meeting and directing the HMND 01 Alpha robots at the Nvidia GTC to bring me a snack.
This demo was a very simple proof of concept for something that several players in the robotics industry are working on simultaneously. The ability to activate multiple robots with a single command would certainly be useful to people who work closely with them. However, it also conjures fears of a robotic army and the chaos they might cause.
Noble Machines brought along its massive Moby 3 robot, designed to lift and carry up to 50 pounds. His demo was very similar to that Boston Dynamics demonstrated it at CES Earlier this year. The robot performed basic industrial tasks autonomously, and a remote operator stood by with a VR headset to assist the robot whenever it ran into trouble. A nearby screen showed viewers in real time whether the robot was operating autonomously or under the control of an operator.
Reachy Mini is a desktop bot aimed at developers with a starting price of $300.
The Moby 3 prioritizes cost-effectiveness, even using a $1 dog chew toy as its gripper instead of the more expensive, heavily designed hands seen on other robots. The company says the handles do everything they need to do and make them cheaper and easier to replace when needed.
I should also try OpenClaw The AI assistant runs on DGC Spark, which was given extra personality by a Reachy Mini Desktop robot that moved while the AI agent read its answers. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicted that OpenClaw AI agents would make their way into robotics in one form or another, and this seemed like a basic illustration of that.