Is velocityCommand = 1.0 really 1 m/s in Isaac Sim? Unit mismatch?

Omniverse Isaac Sim
1

Isaac Sim Version

[v] 4.5.0

Operating System

Windows 10

GPU Information

  • Model: RTX 2070 super

Content

I’m running an experiment in Isaac Sim where I’m trying to verify the meaning of the velocityCommand input in the ArticulationController.

Here’s what I did:

  • The simulation unit is set to meters (confirmed via default scene scale).
  • I placed a cube at position (1, 0, 0) and my AGV at (0, 0, 0).
  • I applied velocityCommand = [1.0, 0.0] expecting the AGV to move forward at 1 meter per second.
  • However, instead of taking 1 second to reach the cube, it took about 12 seconds in simulation time.

This leads me to wonder:

  • Is 1.0 in velocityCommand really interpreted as 1 m/s in the simulation?
  • If not, what does this value actually represent?
  • Are there other scaling factors (e.g., Drive parameters, physics timestep, articulation constraints) that affect how the velocity is applied?

I’d appreciate clarification on how the unit of velocityCommand is applied in practice, and how to accurately predict AGV motion based on it.

Wheel Joint

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3

Hi @skwix7905, thanks for posting your issue. I think the input to your system is the rotational velocity of the wheels, is that correct? In that case, the units of the input is in rad/s which translate to a velocity of the body via the radius of the wheel.