Joby Aviation, a leader in electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for commercial and defense applications, announced a strategic collaboration with NVIDIA, marking NVIDIA’s selection of Joby as the exclusive aviation launch partner for its new NVIDIA IGX Thor platform. Powered by the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, IGX Thor is an industrial-grade computing platform built to drive the next generation of physical AI applications. This collaboration represents a major step forward in advancing Joby’s Superpilot autonomous flight technology across both military and civilian aviation platforms.
“The autonomous systems under development at Joby are poised to complement human intelligence by providing speed, precision, and stamina beyond what a person alone is capable of,” said Gregor Veble Mikić, Flight Research Lead at Joby. “To achieve this, an aircraft needs a powerful onboard computer that can interpret extraordinary amounts of information to make decisions in real-time. Combining NVIDIA’s compute power with our world-class aircraft design, certification and rigorous flight testing capabilities, we’re enabling a new era of safety-first autonomy in aviation.”
Joby’s Superpilot™ is being developed to deliver a continuum of autonomous capabilities that enhance safety, mission flexibility, and operational efficiency. With NVIDIA’s support for functional safety standards on the IGX Thor platform, Joby is positioned to pursue certifiable autonomy for near-term defense programs while laying the groundwork for future civil aviation use cases as regulatory frameworks evolve within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
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Transforming Autonomous Flight Capabilities
Joby plans to enhance safety and mission capability using advanced AI. This will allow for real-time, onboard decision-making with these technologies:
Autonomous Mission Management: This lets the aircraft find and follow the best flight paths. It can adapt to changes in weather, air traffic, or unexpected situations. It does this through easy collaboration between humans and machines.
Radar and Perception Processing: Uses data from Radar, LiDAR, and vision sensors. This boosts environmental awareness, improves object detection, and ensures safe navigation in all flight conditions.
Sensor Fusion: It merges data from several sensors. Using powerful computing, it provides clear situational awareness and accurate state estimation. This works well, even in tough environments.
Building the Foundation for Intelligent Flight Operations
The integration of NVIDIA’s IGX Thor platform also enables Joby to develop new capabilities that enhance reliability, operational insight, and system longevity, including:
Predictive System Health Monitoring: Advanced analytics enable the aircraft to model and anticipate component health, notifying operators before potential issues arise.
Digital Twin Modeling: With robust computing power, Joby’s aircraft can maintain a digital twin of itself-constantly learning from flight data to refine performance and efficiency while supporting mission control systems.
Veble Mikić added: “Autonomous cars have showcased the ability to interpret large volumes of data to make split-second decisions. For an aircraft, the compute power needed for autonomy is similarly high, but also needs to meet even higher levels of design rigor to achieve certification for operation in controlled airspace. In aviation, every calculation must be perfect, and every decision infallible.”
Pioneering a New Era of Aviation Safety
Joby and NVIDIA are teaming up to advance AI in aviation. Joby brings top-notch skills in aircraft design, certification, and flight testing. NVIDIA adds its advanced AI computing technology. Together, they’re making big strides in the industry. The companies are working together to create a future. In this future, autonomous systems will improve safety, efficiency, and reliability in defense and civil aviation. Generation of Supply Chain Solutions.
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