通过与半导体巨头英伟达的合作，卡特彼勒正在深入研究将人工智能和自动化融入其工程机械中。

这家建筑设备巨头正在其中型 Cat 306 CR 迷你挖掘机上试用人工智能辅助系统。该系统被称为“Cat AI”，是使用Nvidia’s Jetson Thor物理人工智能平台，将于周三在 CES 上进行演示。

Brandon Hootman, vice president of data and AI at Caterpillar, told TechCrunch that Cat AI was built on a fleet of AI agents and can help answer a machine operator’s questions, allow them to access resources, offer safety tips, and schedule services.

将这项技术引入这些机器的最大好处之一是这些系统收集和发送回的数据。

– 我们的客户不会日复一日地坐在笔记本电脑前；they live in the dirt,” Hootman said.“在工作时获得见解并采取所需行动的能力对他们来说非常重要。”

Caterpillar is also piloting digital twins of construction sites using Nvidia’s Omniverse library of simulation resources to test scheduling scenarios and better calculate how much building material a project will need.Hootman 表示，Caterpillar 的机器每秒向公司发送大约 2,000 条消息。这些数据将帮助他们构建这些模拟。

该公司已经在该地区拥有全自动驾驶汽车mining sector，Hootman 表示，这些试点项目是下一步的重要举措，因为该公司希望为其产品组合带来更多自动化。

“The reason that we started here was it was a real challenge of our customers today that needed to be addressed, and also something that we had some real momentum on and we felt like we could bring to market pretty quickly,” Hootman said.“我们还喜欢的一点是，它为我们提供了一种可以继续发展的技术基础。”

Working with companies like Caterpillar — a legacy brand that doesn’t often intertwine with the tech industry — seems to fit right into Nvidia’s physical AI strategy.

Nvidia 首席科学家 Bill Dally 在 2025 年告诉 TechCrunch该芯片制造商认为物理人工智能是下一个前沿领域for the company and its powerful GPUs.

在周一的 CES 主题演讲中，英伟达制定了其计划full-stack ecosystem for physical AI，其中包括像该公司的开放式人工智能模型Cosmos model family, simulation tools, and developer kits.

虽然有些人可能认为物理人工智能只适用于机器人公司，但 Nvidia 机器人和边缘人工智能副总裁迪普·塔拉 (Deepu Talla) 告诉 TechCrunch，该公司采用了更广泛的定义，因为当今每个人都在构建机器人。

“物理人工智能是人工智能的下一波浪潮，”塔拉说。“Nvidia is pioneering that with computers that train the models, that do the simulation to test the models and deploy the models into the robots, whether [that’s] an autonomous car or a Caterpillar machine.”

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