Converting obj or stl files into usd for physics simulation / robot learning on isaac sim 4.5

Omniverse Isaac Sim
, , ,
1

Dear NVIDIA community,

Its Hamid, I am a beginner in Isacc Sim / Lab. I have been working on this amazing simulator since last few months. My research area is robotics (robot learning for manipulation tasks).

I am replicating a research paper. They have developed a scene for a robotic manipulator for doing peg-insertion task, the idea is to train a policy in simulator (RL: PPO) and then transferring that (zero-shot) to real robot (Franka Emika robot). I need to do some modification in the assets of the provided scene like changing the size of some assets like diameter of a peg.
I was wondering how I can design my assets in Oneshape (I already have designed them) and then spawn them in my physical scene (Isaac Sim) for interacting with the robot.
Basically, I am so lost in how to change a stl/obj file into a physical asset for a robotic task.

Thanks in advance to whom share his/her knowledge :)

3

Hi, yes this is very do-able!

  1. Model in Onshape with correct metric units and export each part as STL/OBJ (ideally in meters or with a known scale factor).​

  2. In Isaac Sim 4.5, File → Import the STL/OBJ, then right‑click the prim and save as USD into your assets folder (Nucleus/local).​

  3. On the imported prim, add a rigid body or collision, choose a simple/convex collision approximation, and set mass, friction, and restitution, then re‑save the USD; this makes it a physical asset for your peg‑in‑hole task.​