A rendering of the planned NEURA Gym RWTH Aachen. Source: NEURA Robotics
People are not the only ones who can benefit from going to the gym. Physical AI developers are increasingly turning to specialized facilities to train models enabling robots to perceive, decide, and act in the real world. NEURA Robotics GmbH this week said it has partnered with RWTH Aachen University to address the scarcity of real-world data for training its “cognitive” robotics.
“Unlike large language models, which train on trillions of data points, robots have access to a fraction of that volume,” explained NEURA Robotics. “Simulations alone cannot reproduce the friction, variability, and unpredictability of the real-world environment robots will operate in.”
The NEURA Gyms will combine physical training and high-fidelity simulation to create high-quality datasets that directly feed the Neuravese open, cloud-based development platform. “Partners can train and validate robots for their specific use cases before committing to full industrial deployment, reducing adoption risk and accelerating time to deployment,” the company explained.
Germany to lead NEURA Gym development
NEURA Robotics is building 10 facilities across Europe, the U.S., and China. The company said it expects half of them to be operational by the end of 2026.
The two centers in Germany will be at RWTH Aachen‘s Hightech Campus Melaten and at Munich Airport in collaboration with the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and its Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI).
“The collaboration with NEURA Robotics and the NEURA Gym RWTH Aachen at the heart of our university takes our transfer strategy to a new level,” stated Prof. Dr. Ulrich Rüdiger, rector of RWTH Aachen University.
“RWTH looks back on decades of technological excellence in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science,” he added. “By combining this scientific leadership with a leading high-tech pioneer, we are creating a unique infrastructure for the skilled professionals of tomorrow and securing Germany’s leading position in the global AI competition.”
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Metzingen, Germany-based NEURA Robotics said its recent Series C financing of up to $1.4 billion is backing its global gym network.
The Aachen Gym at Campus Melaten will be about 3,000 sq. m (32,291.7 sq. ft.). TUM RoboGym in Munich will be more than 2,300 sq. m (24,756.9 sq. ft.) and will test fleets of cognitive and humanoid robots.
While the gyms will share an open physical AI infrastructure through the Neuraverse, they will differ depending on the specialties of each region and set of partners, said NEURA. While the company will provide the technology infrastructure, academic researchers and corporate partners will bring domain-specific knowledge.
The NEURA Gyms will produce multimodal data from real-world interactions, to be scaled with high-fidelity simulation. Technologies from Neuraverse ecosystem partners will also be available.
Sectors including manufacturing, automotive, healthcare, and industrial automation have expressed interest in using the facilities.
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