isaac-sim

name

isaac-sim

description

Control NVIDIA Isaac Sim 6.0 robot simulations with SO-ARM101 in kitchen environments. Use when asked to simulate robots, run pick-and-place tasks, control the SO-101 arm, load LeIsaac kitchen scenes, render simulation frames, stream real-time simulation, record episodes to DynamoDB, or transfer trajectories to real robots via Sim2Real bridge. Supports the LeIsaac kitchen orange-picking demo with physics-based joint control.

Isaac Sim 6.0 — SO-101 Kitchen Simulation

Run headless NVIDIA Isaac Sim simulations via Docker on this server. Primary demo: SO-ARM101 pick-and-place in LeIsaac kitchen scene.

Prerequisites

Component	Required	Check
Docker	≥ 24.x	docker --version
NVIDIA Container Toolkit	≥ 1.14	nvidia-container-cli --version
Isaac Sim container	nvcr.io/nvidia/isaac-sim:6.0.0-dev2	docker images
NVIDIA GPU	L40S / A100 / etc.	nvidia-smi
LeIsaac assets	Kitchen + Robot USD	ls /tmp/leisaac_assets/

Cache volumes: ~/docker/isaac-sim/

Quick Reference — Scripts

1. Download Assets

bash scripts/leisaac/download_assets.sh
# Downloads kitchen_with_orange.zip + so101_follower.usd

2. Interactive Streaming (WebRTC)

bash scripts/leisaac/run_streaming.sh
# Connect: NVIDIA Streaming Client -> localhost (or via DCV -> localhost)

3. Headless Render

ASSET_DIR=/tmp/leisaac_assets OUTPUT_DIR=./output bash scripts/leisaac/run_render.sh

4. Pick-and-Place Animation

The load_kitchen_scene.py script loads the scene and runs pick-and-place. Restart the container to replay:

docker restart isaac-sim-streaming

Robot Configuration

Parameter	Value
Model	SO-ARM101 (Hiwonder LeRobot)
USD	/tmp/so101_follower.usd
Position	(2.30, -0.55, 0.92) — counter edge
Rotation	180° on Z (face wall/objects)
Stiffness	17.8
Damping	0.60
Fix method	FixedJoint (world → base)

Joints

Joint	Range (deg)	Description
shoulder_pan	-110 to 110	Base rotation
shoulder_lift	-100 to 100	Shoulder up/down
elbow_flex	-100 to 90	Elbow bend
wrist_flex	-95 to 95	Wrist pitch
wrist_roll	-160 to 160	Wrist roll
gripper	-10 to 100	Open/close

Critical Rules

1. Never rotate the robot USD for Y-up→Z-up — internal transforms handle it
2. Always create FixedJoint before physics play, or robot falls
3. FixedJoint localPos0/localRot0 MUST match robot transform — mismatch = physics explosion
4. Quaternion for Z rotation: Gf.Quatf(cos(angle/2), 0, 0, sin(angle/2))
5. Use drive:angular:physics:targetPosition for joint control (needs physics running)
6. Set physics:rigidBodyEnabled=False for static-only scenes (joints won't move)
7. Camera: use .Set() not .Add() on existing perspective camera ops
8. No import omni.X inside async functions — causes scoping errors with top-level omni
9. Fix file permissions (chmod -R a+r) on LeIsaac assets before Docker mount

Scene Coordinates

Kitchen counter (counter_main_main_group/geometry_1):

• X: [1.71, 2.75]
• Y: [-0.65, 0.00] (edge at -0.65, wall at 0.00)
• Z: [0.89, 0.92] (top surface = 0.92)

Objects:

• Orange001: (2.13, -0.30, 0.95)
• Orange002: (2.25, -0.33, 0.95)
• Orange003: (2.15, -0.41, 0.94)
• Plate: (2.42, -0.34, 0.96)

Core API Patterns

Load Scene + Robot

from isaacsim.core.utils.stage import add_reference_to_stage

add_reference_to_stage("/scene_data/scenes/kitchen_with_orange/scene.usd", "/World/Kitchen")
add_reference_to_stage("/scene_data/robot.usd", "/World/Robot")

Position Robot

xf = UsdGeom.Xformable(robot_prim)
xf.ClearXformOpOrder()
xf.AddTranslateOp().Set(Gf.Vec3d(2.30, -0.55, 0.92))
xf.AddRotateXYZOp().Set(Gf.Vec3f(0, 0, 180))

Fix Root Link (REQUIRED for physics)

import math
angle_rad = math.radians(180)
quat_z = Gf.Quatf(math.cos(angle_rad/2), 0, 0, math.sin(angle_rad/2))

fj = UsdPhysics.FixedJoint.Define(stage, "/World/Robot/FixedJoint")
fj.GetBody1Rel().SetTargets(["/World/Robot/base"])
fj.GetLocalPos0Attr().Set(Gf.Vec3f(2.30, -0.55, 0.92))
fj.GetLocalRot0Attr().Set(quat_z)
fj.GetLocalPos1Attr().Set(Gf.Vec3f(0, 0, 0))
fj.GetLocalRot1Attr().Set(Gf.Quatf(1, 0, 0, 0))

Set Joint Targets

for prim in Usd.PrimRange(robot_prim):
    if prim.IsA(UsdPhysics.RevoluteJoint):
        name = prim.GetName()
        if name in targets:
            prim.GetAttribute("drive:angular:physics:stiffness").Set(17.8)
            prim.GetAttribute("drive:angular:physics:damping").Set(0.60)
            prim.GetAttribute("drive:angular:physics:targetPosition").Set(targets[name])

Start Physics

omni.timeline.get_timeline_interface().play()

Sim2Real Memory Pipeline

Record Episode to DynamoDB

from scripts.sim2real.episode_logger import EpisodeLogger
logger = EpisodeLogger()
eid = logger.start_episode(task="pick_orange_to_plate", robot_config={...})
logger.add_waypoint(1, "reach", {"shoulder_pan": -15, ...})
logger.end_episode(success=True)

Transfer to Real Robot

python scripts/sim2real/bridge.py --task pick_orange_to_plate --execute

Query Knowledge (Bedrock KB)

aws bedrock-agent-runtime retrieve \
  --knowledge-base-id LXJRX6IS8Z \
  --retrieval-query '{"text": "How to pick orange with SO-101?"}' \
  --region us-west-2

What Does NOT Work in Isaac Sim 6.0

Approach	Result
physxArticulation:fixBase attribute	Not recognized
PhysxArticulationAPI.GetFixBaseAttr()	API doesn't exist
physics:kinematicEnabled=True on base only	Arm collapses
physics:rigidBodyEnabled=False on all links	Joints don't move
Heavy mass (1000kg) on base	Physics explosion
FixedJoint with wrong localPos0/localRot0	Physics explosion
from omni.X import Y inside async function	Shadows top-level omni

Docker Container

docker run -d --name isaac-sim-streaming \
  --gpus all \
  -e "ACCEPT_EULA=Y" -e "PRIVACY_CONSENT=Y" \
  --network=host \
  -v ~/docker/isaac-sim/cache/main:/isaac-sim/.cache:rw \
  -v ~/docker/isaac-sim/cache/computecache:/isaac-sim/.nv/ComputeCache:rw \
  -v /tmp/leisaac_assets:/scene_data/scenes:ro \
  -v /tmp/so101_follower.usd:/scene_data/robot.usd:ro \
  -v /path/to/script.py:/isaac-sim/load_kitchen.py:ro \
  nvcr.io/nvidia/isaac-sim:6.0.0-dev2 \
  ./runheadless.sh \
  --/app/renderer/resolution/width=1280 \
  --/app/renderer/resolution/height=720 \
  --/exts/omni.kit.livestream.webrtc/maxBitrate=5000000 \
  --exec "/isaac-sim/load_kitchen.py"

Safety

• Never use -u 1234:1234 (causes EULA segfault)
• Always set ACCEPT_EULA=Y, PRIVACY_CONSENT=Y
• Use --restart unless-stopped for streaming containers
• Container startup: ~35s, scene load: ~30-60s, physics warm-up: ~10s