Caterpillar is digging deeper into incorporating AI and automation into its fleet of construction machinery through a partnership with semiconductor giant Nvidia.<\/p>\n
The construction equipment giant is piloting an AI assistive system in its mid-size Cat 306 CR Mini Excavator. Dubbed \u201cCat AI,\u201d the system was built using Nvidia\u2019s Jetson Thor<\/a> physical AI platform, and is being demoed at CES on Wednesday.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s questions, allow them to access resources, offer safety tips, and schedule services.<\/p>\n One of the biggest benefits of bringing this tech into these machines is the data that these systems collect and send back out.<\/p>\n \u201cOur customers don\u2019t live in front of a laptop day in and day out; they live in the dirt,\u201d Hootman said. \u201cThe ability to get the insights and take the action that they need while they\u2019re doing the work is very important to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Caterpillar is also piloting digital twins of construction sites using Nvidia\u2019s Omniverse library of simulation resources to test scheduling scenarios and better calculate how much building material a project will need. Hootman said Caterpillar\u2019s machines send roughly 2,000 messages back to the company every second. This data will help them build these simulations. <\/p>\n The company already has fully autonomous vehicles in the mining sector<\/a>, and Hootman said that these pilot programs are a great next step as the company looks to bring more automation to its portfolio.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco \u201cThe 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,\u201d Hootman said. \u201cWhat we also liked is that it provided a kind of a technology foundation\u00a0for us to then build upon.\u201d<\/p>\n Working with companies like Caterpillar \u2014 a legacy brand that doesn\u2019t often intertwine with the tech industry \u2014 seems to fit right into Nvidia\u2019s physical AI strategy.<\/p>\n Bill Dally, Nvidia\u2019s chief scientist, told TechCrunch in 2025 that the chipmaker considers physical AI to be the next frontier<\/a> for the company and its powerful GPUs.<\/p>\n During its CES keynote on Monday, Nvidia laid out plans for its full-stack ecosystem for physical AI<\/a>, which includes open AI models like the company\u2019s Cosmos model family<\/a>, simulation tools, and developer kits.<\/p>\n While some may think physical AI is just for robotics companies, Deepu Talla, the vice president of robotics and edge AI at Nvidia, told TechCrunch the company takes a much broader definition as everyone is building robotics today.<\/p>\n \u201cPhysical AI is the next wave of AI,\u201d Talla said. \u201cNvidia 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\u2019s] an autonomous car or a Caterpillar machine.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n