FORT Robotics brings outside-in safety to robots with Nvidia Halos

FORT Robotics, which has long been an industry standard for safety-certified control in autonomous systems, is extending its Trust Layer platform by integrating with Nvidia's Outside-In Safety Blueprint. This collaboration addresses a real operational constraint: robots in real-world settings encounter unpredictable conditions—crowded warehouses, moving workers, changing inventory layouts—that traditional onboard-only safety approaches cannot handle efficiently. By forcing robots into conservative operating modes to guarantee safety, companies lose productivity and return on investment.

The outside-in approach leverages hardware already present in many facilities: building-mounted cameras and other external sensors. Nvidia's IGX Thor compute and Holoscan Sensor Bridge connect these sensors to visual AI agents that continuously monitor the robot's surroundings and anticipate risks. This expanded perception allows robots to modulate their speed and caution dynamically—operating at full efficiency when conditions are clear, and automatically slowing down when workers enter the space or unexpected obstacles appear. For businesses, this means the same robot hardware can deliver both safety and productivity gains without requiring expensive facility redesigns.

The accreditation of FORT and Nvidia through the ANSI National Accreditation Board's first-of-its-kind inspection lab for physical AI signals that safety in autonomous systems is moving from a cost center to a certifiable competitive advantage. Companies that can deploy robots faster and more safely in mixed human-robot environments may capture early market share in warehouse automation and manufacturing.