Brijesh Desai 
NVIDIA unveils research robot platform combining Unitree, Sharpa and AI with the Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot, featuring Unitree H2 Plus body, Sharpa Wave five-fingered hands, and Jetson Thor compute with Blackwell GPU for academic research.
NVIDIA unveils research robot platform combining Unitree, Sharpa and AI, announcing the Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot — the first open humanoid robot reference design built on NVIDIA Jetson Thor and the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T open development platform.
CEO Jensen Huang revealed the partnership during a keynote address in Taipei on Monday ahead of Computex 2026, teaming up with Chinese robotics champion Unitree Robotics and Singapore-based robotic hand maker Sharpa to accelerate innovation in the global humanoid industry.
What is the Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot?
The new design, called H2+ or Isaac GR00T, is a state-of-the-art robot reference design that allows researchers to build, fine-tune, and deploy skills faster. It streamlines the full development workflow, including data collection, policy training, and real-world deployment.
The platform unifies development by bringing together three key components:
Together, this creates a fully integrated humanoid robot with 25 degrees of freedom in each hand and 31 degrees of freedom in the robot body.
Key specifications
- Height: Nearly 6 feet tall (human-sized)
- Weight:Â 150 pounds
- Degrees of freedom: 31 DOF in the robot body, 25 DOF in each hand
- Onboard compute: NVIDIA Jetson Thor powered by the cutting-edge Blackwell GPU
- Hands: Sharpa Wave tactile five-finger hands with dexterous manipulation
- AI models: Isaac GR00T foundational models providing advanced reasoning capabilities
- Software stack: Includes data generation, simulation, data collection, policy training, and real-world deployment tools
Why this matters for research
According to Rev Lebaredian, NVIDIA’s vice president of physical AI simulation, the initiative aims to democratize cutting-edge humanoid research, moving it beyond just the largest tech firms and AI unicorns to make it accessible to every laboratory.
Researchers from institutions including:
Stanford University
University of California San Diego
ETH Zurich
are expected to utilize these robots for academic research.
Availability and future plans
- H2 Plus launch: The upgraded H2 Plus version of Unitree’s H2 humanoid robot is set to launch in October 2026, and “anyone can purchase it”
- Unitree G1 support: The NVIDIA Isaac GR00T developer platform will also support the Unitree G1 humanoid robot, extending the same development approach to a robot widely used by researchers and humanoid developers across leading institutions. The reference workflow for Unitree G1 is expected to be available soon on GitHub and Hugging Face
- Global partnerships: NVIDIA plans to work with humanoid robot makers in the U.S., Europe, and South Korea in addition to China’s Unitree to build robots for researchers
Jensen Huang’s vision
During his keynote, Jensen Huang said:
“Today, we’re unveiling Nvidia Isaac, a humanoid robot fully integrated with 25 degrees of freedom in each hand crafted by Sharpa, and 31 degrees of freedom in the robot itself, weighing in at six feet and 150 pounds, just like me. This platform operates on the new Thor and incorporates our entire software stack, including data generation and simulation, all integrated into a robot designed for universal use.”
By directly integrating NVIDIA’s Blackwell chips with Unitree’s robot bodies, the company brings the same security features it uses to protect data center servers to humanoid research robots.
NVIDIA unveils research robot platform combining Unitree, Sharpa and AIÂ is a landmark moment for humanoid robotics.
The Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot combines Unitree’s H2 Plus body, Sharpa’s Wave five-fingered hands, and NVIDIA’s Jetson Thor compute with Blackwell GPU into a single, open platform that researchers at Stanford, ETH Zurich, and beyond can actually afford and use.
With the H2 Plus launching in October 2026 and anyone able to purchase it, NVIDIA is making cutting-edge humanoid research accessible to everyone—not just Big Tech. This is how you democratize the future of robotics.