Hardware Podcasts

Plug-and-Play AI: Transforming Robotics with Modular Skills

The Robot Report Podcast · 6 Mar 2026 · 1h 14m

What this episode covers

Dinesh Narayanan, Head of Commercialization at General Robotics, explains the company's transition from Microsoft Research to build Grid, a platform integrating simulation, AI models, and deployment pipelines to accelerate robotics development. He details how Grid’s modular 'plug-and-play' skills allow enterprises to rapidly prototype and deploy solutions across diverse form factors, including humanoids, by combining various AI techniques rather than relying on a single monolithic model. The conversation highlights the platform's ability to handle complex workflows, such as emergency kit packing, by orchestrating specialized models for vision, manipulation, and navigation simultaneously. Narayanan positions General Robotics as the 'AWS for robotics,' focusing on deployment speed and adaptability for large enterprises and government organizations.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
General Robotics, Waymo, NVIDIA, Universal Robots, Locust Robotics, Microsoft, Data Bricks, Scale AI, Generalist, Figure, Pi, Skilled AI
Products
Grid
Tools
Isaac Sim, AirSim, GitHub Copilot, ROS
Also
Hugging Face

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