German robotics maker Neura released a video this week of its humanoid robot, 4NE-1, performing a variety of tasks, including ironing and moving boxes. The promotional video comes as Nvidia unveils a slew of new tools for humanoids at the SIGGRAPH conference in Colorado.
Neura is one of 13 companies given early access to Nvidia's humanoid development and deployment tools. The list also includes 1X, Boston Dynamics, ByteDance Research, Field AI, Figure, Fourier, Galbot, LimX Dynamics, Mentee, RobotEra and Skild AI.
Some of the biggest names in the emerging form factor space include 1X, Figure, and Boston Dynamics. Neura has previously teased the tongue-in-cheek name 4NE-1, but the project appears to be in its early stages as the company has focused on more traditional form factors in industrial environments.
When I spoke with Neura CEO David Leger at a humanoid robotics panel at Automate, which also featured Boston Dynamics, Agility, and Aptronic, Leger promised we'd get a closer look at the robot in July. There were a few robots on display at the event, but none were functional and were merely photo opportunities for attendees.
This week's video shows 4NE-1 doing a lot — in some ways, more than any other humanoid we've seen in this space. However, all humanoids should be taken with a pinch of salt, especially those with lots of short shots and commercial edits. As we've pointed out in the past, these videos are not representative of the capabilities of the system in particular.
Neura, meanwhile, is using the video to promote its presence in the space and its collaboration with Nvidia's robotics portfolio. “By combining Neura's innovative cognitive robotics solutions with Nvidia's advanced computing power and simulation platform, we can push the boundaries of humanoid robotics even faster,” Reger said in a comment accompanying the news.
The video alternates between the simulations used to test and train these systems and shots of the bots in real-world scenarios. Until we're able to see the systems perform repeatable tasks at scale in real-world scenarios, these types of videos should always be approached with a degree of skepticism.
As with any company working on humanoids, we'd love to see more live video of 4NE-1 in action. Even the humanoids in the field are currently in the testing phase, with the exception of Agility, which has partnered with logistics giant GXO. But even that contract is a long way from the large-scale, full-scale deployment we've seen with autonomous mobile robots.
Still, NVIDIA's work on humanoids is a strong signal of confidence in this emerging field, and will go a long way in accelerating development and paving the way for many more new entrants.
“The next wave of AI is robotics, and one of the most exciting developments is humanoid robots,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in the release. “We're advancing the entire Nvidia robotics stack to ensure humanoid developers and companies around the world have access to the platform, acceleration libraries and AI models that best suit their needs.”