Humanoid builds a PC onstage
Sharpa Robotics demoed its humanoid 'North' assembling a desktop PC at GTC, using 22‑DoF dexterous hands with 1,000+ touch sensors per fingertip and a CraftNet system for real‑time vision‑touch adaptation. The demo shows sub‑millimeter manipulation and real‑time sensor integration—concrete progress on multi‑step assembly tasks for service and manufacturing roles. (x.com)
Sharpa posted the assembly clip during NVIDIA GTC in San Jose (March 16–19, 2026), showing North perform the demo on the GTC expo floor. (nvidia.com) Footage released by the company and shared by industry commentators shows North inserting a GPU into a PCIe slot, then screwing the bracket and dressing internal cables. (mikekalil.com) Sharpa said the demo used its CraftNet VTLA stack, which the company describes as separating long‑horizon planning and contact reflexes across motion and interaction “brains” and mapping tactile signals to human video and glove datasets for training. (roboticsandautomationnews.com) The startup has announced membership in NVIDIA’s Inception program and promoted joint work to bridge simulation and real‑world dexterity for data‑efficient training at events including GTC. (techintelpro.com) Sharpa previously unveiled North at CES on Jan. 6, 2026, where the robot ran continuous live demos—playing ping‑pong with a reported 0.02‑second reaction time and performing unscripted card‑dealing and photo‑capture tasks. (sharpa.com) Company materials and press writeups say Sharpa has started mass production of its SharpaWave hands but has not released commercial pricing, and they report tactile streams to the hand controller at up to ~180 updates per second with fingertip forces cited around 30 N. (mikekalil.com)
