I am trying to simulate Robotiq 2F-140 in Isaac Sim.
The “official” USD asset from Isaac Sim assets simply doesn’t work, and the one provided by the community (in this forum, thank you!) seems to be the best one out there. While good, it isn’t super realistic when it comes to modeling contact (collisions) with other rigid bodies.
My request here is if someone on the Isaac Sim team (or the community) could provide us with USD of the asset that behaves more realistically when it comes to collision modeling. This is a popular gripper, and many would benefit.
A recent publication (link) by the Nvidia team indicates that there might exist such an asset within the company.
Unchecking the “Articulation Enabled” fixes the exploding asset issue, but now (as it was with the asset in Isaac Sim 4.5.0), the asset is just unrealistic. As such, it is useless since it doesn’t mimic the real world.
In the screenshot is the state of the asset when I insert it in the scene and press “play”. This is not the default /resting state of the asset in the real world. It is not even achievable.
It is also shown as if it has 10 controllable joints (bottom right scene, achieved by clicking tools → robotics → omnigraph controllers → joint position), when in the real world, the gripper has only a single controllable joint.
Finally, no matter which value I set as the target joint state now through the bottom right GUI (omnigraph joint position controller), the robot doesn’t move (since articulation is disabled).
Please fix this asset and make sure it mimics the real world.
When a multi-degree-of-freedom (DoF) asset, like this gripper, interacts with the environment without proper constraints or attachments, the physics engine may generate unrealistic forces. This can cause the asset to “bounce” or even “explode” in simulation, as the engine attempts to resolve many joint motions and collisions simultaneously.
To ensure realistic and stable behavior, the gripper should be attached to a robot arm, rather than left loose on the ground. By fixing the base of the gripper—such as by creating a fixed joint at robotiq_base_link—you provide the necessary stabilization so the simulation behaves as expected.
Regarding joint controllability, although the simulation asset lists 10 joints, only the main finger_joint is intended for direct control. This accurately reflects the real-world Robotiq 2F-140 gripper, which only allows user control over its primary finger joint. All other joints either follow mechanically (as mimic or passive joints) or are not meant to be independently actuated.
This setup ensures that simulated behavior matches the actual hardware operation, allowing users to interact with the gripper as they would in real-world scenarios.
As I said, to achieve stable and realistic simulation results, you should attach the Robotiq 2F-140 gripper to your robot by creating a fixed joint at the robotiq_base_link . Once this is done, you only need to control the primary finger_joint —this mirrors how the gripper works in real-world applications, where only the main finger joint is actuated and the other joints follow passively or as mimics.
