Isaac tools (and ROS)

This section will not cover core ROS but its only integrations with Isaac tools. The following will be discussed here.

  1. Isaac Sim, for simulation

  2. Isaac ROS, for tooling

  3. Isaac Lab, for learning

There are 3 compatibilites to check:

Interaction

Compatibility

Isaac Sim <-> Isaac Lab

Isaac Sim 4.5 and Isaac Lab 2.2 is currently supported, tested and recommended by NVIDIA

ROS <-> Isaac Sim

ROS humble on Ubuntu Jazzy for Isaac Sim 4.5.0 and 5.0 is recommended by NVIDIA

Isaac ROS <-> Isaac Sim

Isaac ROS 3.2.0 with Isaac Sim 4.5.0

For compatibility between the three tools, we will be using the following configuration.

Isaac Sim 4.5.0
Isaac Lab 2.2
ROS Humble
Ubuntu Jazzy 22.04

Isaac Sim

Isaac Sim is a simulator, specializing in high end graphics rendering.

You can either use native ROS, the barebone ROS built-in Isaac Sim for ROS integration.

Isaac Sim <-> Isaacsim.ros.bridge <-> Native ROS / built ROS of Isaac Sim

Isaac ROS

Isaac ROS are a set of ROS packages. These are designed with NVIDIA-acceleration and for low latency.

A few more terms

Name

Description

OpenUSD

NVIDIA’s version of SDF, developed by PIXAR. Used for extremely detailed scenes and robots

OmniGraph

Visual Scripting Tool In Omniverse. Basically, it is like making a network of ROS nodes using drag and drop pulling the mouse to connect nodes with each other