NVIDIA and Unitree Unveil the Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot, an Open 75-Degree-of-Freedom Platform for Academic Research
NVIDIA and Unitree announced a jointly developed open humanoid robot reference design built on Unitree's H2 Plus chassis, with 75 total degrees of freedom and Jetson Thor compute, due from Unitree in late 2026.
Overview
NVIDIA has announced the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot, which it describes as the first open humanoid robot reference design built on its Jetson Thor compute and Isaac GR00T development platform, according to NVIDIA. The design pairs a humanoid chassis from Chinese robotics maker Unitree with NVIDIA’s onboard compute and software stack, and is aimed at giving university and industry research labs a shared hardware-and-software base for studying general-purpose robots.
Unitree said the underlying machine is its H2 Plus humanoid, which the company will sell in late 2026, as reported by PR Newswire. NVIDIA likewise said the reference robot will be available from Unitree in late 2026, according to NVIDIA.
What We Know
The robot stands nearly 6 feet tall and weighs 150 pounds, with 31 degrees of freedom across the body and 22 degrees of freedom in its dual Sharpa Wave tactile five-finger hands, for a total of 75 degrees of freedom across the body and hands, according to GlobeNewswire. The same specifications appear in Unitree’s announcement, as reported by PR Newswire.
The system combines the Unitree H2 Plus chassis, the Sharpa Wave hands, NVIDIA Jetson AGX Thor T5000 onboard compute, and NVIDIA’s Isaac GR00T open software and models, according to NVIDIA. In its own reporting, Engadget noted further hardware details, including arm torque of up to 120 Newton-meters and a 15Ah battery providing about three hours of endurance, and described the Jetson AGX Thor T5000 as carrying an NVIDIA Blackwell GPU with 128GB of unified memory.
NVIDIA framed the launch around academic use, naming Ai2, ETH Zurich, the Stanford Robotics Center, and UC San Diego’s Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory among the research institutions set to use the reference design, according to NVIDIA. The same institutions were listed by TechFundingNews.
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang said, “Humanoid robots will bring physical AI to the world’s largest industries, opening a multitrillion-dollar economic opportunity,” according to GlobeNewswire.
Unitree positioned the product as a ready-to-build foundation for developers. “Developers want humanoid robots that are ready to build on. H2 Plus combines Unitree’s humanoid with NVIDIA Jetson Thor and the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T development platform, giving teams a validated starting point for creating robot skills and bringing them into real-world applications,” said Xingxing Wang, founder and CEO of Unitree Robotics, according to PR Newswire.
Researchers echoed the emphasis on shared, open hardware. Steve Cousins, executive director of the Stanford Robotics Center, said the reference robot “gives our students and collaborators an open humanoid reference design with dexterous hands, onboard AI compute and the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T development platform for creating, comparing and sharing robot behaviors on physical hardware,” according to GlobeNewswire. Michael Yip, a UC San Diego professor, said that “an integrated platform that connects robot hardware, data capture, policy learning and physical evaluation can help researchers accelerate loco-manipulation research,” according to TechFundingNews.
What We Don’t Know
Neither NVIDIA nor Unitree disclosed a price for the H2 Plus reference robot. Engadget noted that Unitree’s existing H2 model is listed for $29,900, but did not report a price for the new H2 Plus configuration. The companies also did not provide a more specific availability window beyond late 2026, according to NVIDIA.
Analysis
The announcement extends a pattern in which NVIDIA supplies the compute and software layer for humanoid robots while partnering with hardware makers rather than building robots itself. By packaging a validated chassis, dexterous hands, onboard compute, and an open development stack into a single reference design, the companies are targeting research labs that have historically had to assemble these pieces individually. The choice of Unitree, one of the most prominent Chinese humanoid makers, as the hardware partner underscores how central Chinese robotics hardware has become to the broader humanoid ecosystem, even as much of the surrounding AI software stack originates with U.S. firms.