NVIDIA has announced an expansion of its physical artificial intelligence ecosystem in Japan, with leading robotics, manufacturing, technology and telecommunications companies adopting its Cosmos, Isaac, Metropolis and Jetson platforms.
The company also introduced Cosmos 3 Edge, a new model designed to bring real-time vision reasoning and robot policy deployment directly to edge computing systems.
Cosmos 3 Edge is a 4-billion-parameter model built on NVIDIA Nemotron. It is designed to help robots and vision AI agents understand their surroundings, reason locally and generate actions without relying entirely on cloud-based processing.
The model can run on NVIDIA edge platforms, including Jetson Thor, and can be adapted for specific robots, vehicles, sensors and operating environments.
NVIDIA said developers can use the open Cosmos framework to customize the model for a specific application in approximately one day.
Cosmos 3 Edge is lightweight enough to operate across NVIDIA RTX GPUs, DGX systems and Jetson platforms, including the newly announced T2000 and T3000 modules.
Running AI models at the edge can allow robots and other intelligent machines to respond more quickly because data does not have to be sent to a remote server before an action is selected.
Local processing can also be useful in factories, vehicles, construction sites and other environments where connectivity may be inconsistent or real-time decision-making is essential.
Alongside Cosmos 3 Edge, NVIDIA introduced new Metropolis libraries and skills intended to simplify the development of agentic vision AI systems.
The tools allow developers to use coding agents to build, train and operate video intelligence systems powered by Cosmos.
NVIDIA said the new libraries can accelerate certain vision AI development workflows by at least six times.
The company is also expanding the NVIDIA Cosmos Coalition into Japan.
AIRoA, classmethod, Enactic, FANUC, Fujitsu, GROOVE X, Hitachi, Honda R&D, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kubota, Mitsui & Co., Mitsubishi Corp., Mujin, NEC, Preferred Networks, SoftBank Corp., Sony Group, Telexistence, TIER IV, TRON K.K., Turing and Yaskawa Electric intend to join the initiative.
The coalition brings together companies developing world models, robotics systems and other physical AI technologies.
Members can contribute to and build on NVIDIA Cosmos, which includes open models, datasets, data curation libraries and development frameworks.
World models are designed to help AI systems understand and simulate how physical environments behave.
Companies can use these models to test robots and intelligent machines inside simulated environments before deploying them in factories, warehouses, farms, hospitals, roads or homes.
Simulation can shorten development cycles by allowing engineers to evaluate more scenarios without placing equipment, employees or customers at risk.
NVIDIA expects the coalition to support the development of physical AI systems tailored to the requirements of Japanese industries.
Japan has an established base in robotics, automotive manufacturing, precision engineering and industrial automation, creating a substantial market for systems that combine AI with machines and infrastructure.
Fujitsu is exploring the development of a collaborative control platform for physical AI with FANUC, Yaskawa Electric and Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
The proposed platform would use NVIDIA’s physical AI technology to connect digital systems with industrial machinery across multiple sectors.
It is expected to incorporate Cosmos world foundation models, the Isaac robotics development platform, NVIDIA Omniverse NuRec libraries and the Newton physics engine.
These technologies could support AI model development, digital twins, robot training, simulation-to-real deployment and system validation before equipment is introduced into live environments.
NEC, Hitachi, OMRON and Preferred Networks are using NVIDIA Cosmos and related technologies for world models, industrial AI and physical AI research.
SoftBank is developing a physical AI platform using Cosmos, Omniverse and Isaac Sim.
The telecommunications company is also advancing AI-RAN initiatives using NVIDIA AI Aerial, with the goal of supporting intelligent connectivity for large numbers of physical AI devices.
Mujin is exploring Cosmos for autonomous robotics and industrial automation powered by its MujinOS platform.
TRON K.K. is developing manufacturing data workflows for task-specific physical AI models used in assembly, picking, inspection and material handling.
The company is also working on workflows for creating three-dimensional digital representations of factories.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries is applying NVIDIA physical AI technologies across healthcare, shipbuilding, transportation, aerospace and energy.
Kubota is exploring Cosmos-based systems for autonomous agriculture and smart farming.
Enactic is fine-tuning NVIDIA’s Isaac GR00T open model for semi-humanoid elder-care robots.
GROOVE X is developing Jetson-powered LOVOT companion robots, while Telexistence is applying Isaac and exploring Cosmos for retail automation.
Japanese companies are also using NVIDIA Metropolis to introduce vision AI agents into physical operations.
Hitachi is applying the technology to smart-building operations, OMRON is using it for automated inspection and Shimizu Corporation is exploring it for construction safety.
The expansion reflects NVIDIA’s broader effort to provide the models, computing platforms, simulation tools and development software required to build intelligent machines.
By combining Cosmos, Isaac, Metropolis, Omniverse and Jetson, NVIDIA aims to support the full physical AI development process, from simulation and model training to real-world deployment.
KEY QUOTES:
“The next frontier of AI is in the physical world, and this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Japan. Japan invented modern manufacturing. Now, it has the opportunity to reinvent it for the age of intelligent industries. By combining its world-leading heritage in manufacturing, precision engineering and robotics with NVIDIA Cosmos, Isaac, Metropolis and Jetson, Japan’s innovators are building the next generation of intelligent machines. We are honored to partner with them on this journey.”
Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA
