Does isaac sim fracture or damage function realise?

Omniverse Isaac Sim
1

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Isaac Sim Version

5.0.0

Operating System

Ubuntu 24.04

GPU Information

  • Model:Geforce RTX 4060
  • Driver Version:

Topic Description

Detailed Description

I want to build a model of a tomato plant and use a robot to pick them.Does isaac sim 5.0.0 now support the destruction of plant branches or roots

3

Isaac Sim does not currently provide out-of-the-box biological breakage of branches/roots (true fracture with fibers, sap, etc.), but you can approximate tomato picking in two main ways: deformable foliage that is pushed aside, and detachable fruits/branches that can be removed or swapped at runtime.

Practical workarounds for tomato plants

For a tomato-harvesting project, you probably can use combinations of deformables + scripted detachment:

  • Model the plant (stem + branches + leaves) as either:
    • A rigid-body tree with joints and tuned stiffness, or
    • A deformable mesh (FEM soft body) for foliage that can be pushed aside.
  • Attach tomatoes using simple constraints (fixed joints) or “attachments”, then implement logic so that when force, distance, or time thresholds are exceeded, the fruit is programmatically detached and possibly replaced by a “broken stem” visual.
  • For branch breakage, use the same pattern: split the branch into segments and, on exceeding a torque/force threshold at a joint, remove one segment and optionally spawn fractured/bent variants.

Roots and underground interactions

  • Isaac Sim does not simulate botanical root growth/tearing as a dedicated feature; any “root destruction” has to be approximated with meshes and standard physics primitives (e.g., rigid segments underground that are removed or toggled when pulled past a limit).
  • For many ag-robotics RL projects, the focus is above-ground: pushing deformable foliage and detaching fruits, not detailed root mechanics, and those use the same kind of scripted detach and parameter-randomized deformable plant models.

Recommendation for your tomato-picking setup

  • Use deformable foliage or compliant rigid joints so the robot can learn to push leaves/branches aside without needing true fracture.
  • Represent “picking” as: gripper grasps tomato → pulling exceeds a force/pose threshold → joint/attachment is removed and tomato becomes a free rigid body in the gripper.
  • If you need visual breakage, pre-model a small set of “intact” and “broken” branch meshes and swap them at runtime instead of relying on automatic fracturing.
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