Final week, I attended NVIDIA’s 2026 GTC occasion in San Jose, Calif. This yr, the corporate anticipated over 30,000 attendees throughout the 4 days of the present. To host everybody, NVIDIA held occasions throughout a number of completely different venues, together with the San Jose Conference Middle, the San Jose Middle for Performing Arts, The Tech Interactive, and the SAP Middle.
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 firms, 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 record of points with immediately’s robots is sort of giant, however they’re simply engineering issues,” Huang stated throughout a press Q&A on the present. “The actual fact [is] that you would see them strolling round, and so they’re already beginning to do issues. When you see existence, proof of a know-how, the refinement takes lower than 5 years.”
All through this yr’s GPU Expertise Convention, I had the possibility to work together with and even management robots, see new techniques for the primary time, and communicate with business specialists. Listed here are three takeaways from the present.
1. Robots are rising extra succesful and are being taken extra severely
At a present like GTC, which focuses on a variety of technical industries, the robots can typically really feel extra like science initiatives than business merchandise. This wasn’t the sensation at GTC 2026, nonetheless. The robotic demonstrations there centered on exhibiting actual duties and particular ability units.
“A number of years in the past, it was very research-oriented,” stated Leo Ma, the co-founder and CEO of RoboForce. “Now, you’re taking a look at 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 one in all its business deployments with Fireclay Tile, automating repetitive noticed work on the California-based ceramics producer.
Equally, the humanoids on the present have been principally working or doing actual demos, whereas a number of have been nonetheless standing nonetheless on the sidelines. Humanoid, a U.Ok.-based developer, confirmed the wheeled model of its robotic listening to attendees and choosing the gadgets they requested for.
2. With AI, robots are simpler to deploy than ever
Unsurprisingly, synthetic intelligence was one of many greatest subjects of dialog at GTC. On the subject of 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 cellphone packing demo, which got here collectively in just some days earlier than the convention.
“We solely had a number of 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 power of the generalization of GEN-0 and wouldn’t have been attainable a number of 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 obtained to information two UR3e “chief” robots to manage two UR7e “follower” robots. The system was intuitive, straightforward to make use of, and supplied drive 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 improvement equipment.
3. Simulation performs a job in each a part of the robotic lifecycle
As robots make their means into more and more difficult environments, simulation coaching turns into an increasing number of necessary.
Jenny Shern, the final supervisor of NexCOBOT, stated simulation is essential for tackling messy, outside environments. “I see lots of customers beginning to bridge the hole between sim-to-real and real-to-sim,” she stated.
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 are able to actually minimize engineering occasions 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,” stated 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 are able to already plan for the manufacturing facility, for the robotic line.”
Additionally on the convention, many firms, similar to Texas Devices (TI), emphasised the significance of utilizing simulation at every stage of robotic improvement.
“By way of know-how, one factor that has been highlighted repeatedly at GTC is the significance of simulations,” stated Giovanni Campanella, the economic automation and robotics common supervisor at TI. “We speak quite a bit about {hardware}, and principally 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 palms with tactile sensors, additionally highlighted the significance of simulation.
“GTC is a superb place to know the progress within the Bodily AI area this previous yr, from better mannequin coaching effectivity to {hardware} enhancements,” stated Alicia Veneziani, Sharpa’s international vice chairman of GTM and president of Europe. “Sharpa has been using this wave too. We demonstrated how our human-like palms improved software manipulation utilizing tactile AI, and we’re fixing the information drought with high-fidelity simulation and human video knowledge in collaboration with Nvidia.”
GTC is changing into an AI and robotics present
Entrance Desk Data Concierge assisted GTC26 guests with navigation and occasion info. | Credit score: The Robotic Report
Usually, it felt like robots have been changing into a bigger a part of GTC.
“I feel total on the convention it was nice to see the ecosystem proceed to develop,” stated Generalist’s Florence. “There have been a number of new robots on show, and the shape elements 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 variety of robots into the attendee expertise. Intbot‘s humanoid robotic greeted folks on the reception desk, whereas Serve Robots have been zipping alongside inside and outdoors of the conference middle.
“We’re thousands and thousands of truck drivers quick. We’re tens of thousands and thousands of producing staff quick,” Huang stated. “Employment could be very excessive, and but, many firms don’t have sufficient labor, so robots will fill in that hole.”
“No. 1, because of filling that hole, all of our nation’s financial system will develop, and when the financial system grows, most firms have a tendency to rent extra folks,” he added. “They’ll rent extra folks to handle extra robots.”
The publish 3 robotics tendencies from NVIDIA GTC 2026 appeared first on The Robotic Report.
