Final week, I attended NVIDIA’s 2026 GTC occasion in San Jose, Calif. This 12 months, the corporate anticipated over 30,000 attendees throughout the 4 days of the present. To host everybody, NVIDIA held occasions throughout a number of totally different venues, together with the San Jose Conference Heart, the San Jose Heart for Performing Arts, The Tech Interactive, and the SAP Heart.
GTC kicked off with a keynote from NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang. In the course of the keynote, he highlighted NVIDIA’s partnerships with main robotics corporations, like ABB Robotics, FANUC, Agility Robotics, Determine AI, Boston Dynamics, and extra. On the finish of the keynote, Disney Imagineering’s Olaf robotic joined Huang onstage for a quick dialog.
“The listing of points with right this moment’s robots is kind of massive, however they’re simply engineering issues,” Huang mentioned throughout a press Q&A on the present. “The actual fact [is] that you could possibly see them strolling round, and so they’re already beginning to do issues. When you see existence, proof of a expertise, the refinement takes lower than 5 years.”
All through this 12 months’s GPU Know-how Convention, I had the possibility to work together with and even management robots, see new programs for the primary time, and communicate with trade specialists. Listed here are three takeaways from the present.
1. Robots are rising extra succesful and are being taken extra significantly
At a present like GTC, which focuses on a spread of technical industries, the robots can typically really feel extra like science tasks than business merchandise. This wasn’t the sensation at GTC 2026, nevertheless. The robotic demonstrations there targeted on exhibiting actual duties and particular talent units.
“A number of years in the past, it was very research-oriented,” mentioned Leo Ma, the co-founder and CEO of RoboForce. “Now, you’re getting a lot nearer to what the robotic does. What worth is it offering?”
For instance, on the Vention sales space, the corporate showcased its new Speedy Operator AI system with a deep bin-picking demo. Within the NVIDIA sales space, Workr confirmed certainly one of its business deployments with Fireclay Tile, automating repetitive noticed work on the California-based ceramics producer.
Equally, the humanoids on the present had been principally working or doing actual demos, whereas just a few had been nonetheless standing nonetheless on the sidelines. Humanoid, a U.Ok.-based developer, confirmed the wheeled model of its robotic listening to attendees and selecting the gadgets they requested for.
2. With AI, robots are simpler to deploy than ever
Unsurprisingly, synthetic intelligence was one of many largest matters of dialog at GTC. With regards to robotics, current advances in AI are making deployments swifter and simpler than ever earlier than.
On the Teradyne sales space, Common Robots (UR) collaborated with Generalist, an organization that creates AI basis fashions for robotics. The businesses confirmed a fine-precision telephone packing demo, which got here collectively in just some days earlier than the convention.
“We solely had just a few days in our workplace to organize a stay demo with a robotic we had by no means touched earlier than, after which we ran it stay for 4 days,” Pete Florence, the co-founder and CEO of Generalist, instructed The Robotic Report. “This velocity of with the ability to put collectively a brand new robotic demo, on model new {hardware}, speaks to the energy of the generalization of GEN-0 and wouldn’t have been doable just a few months in the past.”
UR additionally debuted and demonstrated the UR AI Coach, a system it created in collaboration with Scale AI. The AI Coach permits a human operator to information UR robots by way of duties. At GTC, I acquired to information two UR3e “chief” robots to manage two UR7e “follower” robots. The system was intuitive, simple to make use of, and supplied power suggestions when the robots touched one thing.
Even on the {hardware} aspect, many builders are specializing in making it simpler to create robots. Nexcom, for instance, launched its humanoid robotic growth package.
3. Simulation performs a job in each a part of the robotic lifecycle
As robots make their method into more and more difficult environments, simulation coaching turns into increasingly more necessary.
Jenny Shern, the final supervisor of NexCOBOT, mentioned simulation is essential for tackling messy, out of doors environments. “I see a whole lot of customers beginning to bridge the hole between sim-to-real and real-to-sim,” she mentioned.
ABB launched its RoboStudio HyperReality, which integrates NVIDIA Omniverse libraries to shut the lengthy‑standing sim‑to‑actual hole in industrial robotics.
“For our finish customers, OEMs, we will actually reduce engineering instances for brand new merchandise, as a result of we’ll have the ability to do concurrent engineering across the product and the manufacturing facility on the similar time,” mentioned Marc Segura, the president of ABB Robotics. “We’re going to get the drawings of the product, however with all of the traits of physics and so forth, we will already plan for the manufacturing facility, for the robotic line.”
Additionally on the convention, many corporations, equivalent to Texas Devices (TI), emphasised the significance of utilizing simulation at every stage of robotic growth.
“By way of expertise, one factor that has been highlighted constantly at GTC is the significance of simulations,” mentioned Giovanni Campanella, the commercial automation and robotics basic supervisor at TI. “We discuss lots about {hardware}, and mainly simulating the {hardware} earlier than you even construct it. Earlier than you even construct the system, you may simulate how the radar is performing in an surroundings the place the robotic goes to be.”
Sharpa, an organization that develops robotic fingers with tactile sensors, additionally highlighted the significance of simulation.
“GTC is a good place to know the progress within the Bodily AI area this previous 12 months, from larger mannequin coaching effectivity to {hardware} enhancements,” mentioned Alicia Veneziani, Sharpa’s international vp of GTM and president of Europe. “Sharpa has been using this wave too. We demonstrated how our human-like fingers improved software manipulation utilizing tactile AI, and we’re fixing the info drought with high-fidelity simulation and human video knowledge in collaboration with Nvidia.”
GTC is turning into an AI and robotics present
Entrance Desk Info Concierge assisted GTC26 guests with navigation and occasion info. | Credit score: The Robotic Report
Typically, it felt like robots had been turning into a bigger a part of GTC.
“I believe general on the convention it was nice to see the ecosystem proceed to develop,” mentioned Generalist’s Florence. “There have been a number of new robots on show, and the shape components proceed to evolve. All of those robots will want brains, and it’s a really thrilling time.”
All through the present, NVIDIA had built-in a spread of robots into the attendee expertise. Intbot‘s humanoid robotic greeted individuals on the reception desk, whereas Serve Robots had been zipping alongside inside and out of doors of the conference heart.
“We’re hundreds of thousands of truck drivers quick. We’re tens of hundreds of thousands of producing staff quick,” Huang mentioned. “Employment could be very excessive, and but, many corporations don’t have sufficient labor, so robots will fill in that hole.”
“No. 1, on account of filling that hole, all of our nation’s economic system will develop, and when the economic system grows, most corporations have a tendency to rent extra individuals,” he added. “They’ll rent extra individuals to handle extra robots.”
The put up 3 robotics developments from NVIDIA GTC 2026 appeared first on The Robotic Report.
