Some critical issues in Isaac 4.5 "Particle Cloth" that prevent realistic cloth simulation

Omniverse Isaac Sim
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1

Isaac Sim Version

[√] 4.5.0

Operating System

[√] Ubuntu 22.04

GPU Information

  • Model: 3070TI
  • Driver Version:

Hello everyone,

I’m currently using Isaac Sim to simulate cloth and trying to use the Franka robot to grasp it. However, I’ve encountered many issues while working with the cloth.

I created a “Particle Cloth,” but I noticed a serious problem: The Franka gripper penetrates the cloth, causing the fabric to stick to the gripper when it opens, making it very difficult to shake off. I recorded a video of this behavior.

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It doesn’t seem to be actually grasping the cloth—rather, the gripper’s collision causes penetration, and the cloth sticks to the gripper (and is extremely hard to shake off). This behavior is drastically different from real-world cloth physics, and it’s incredibly frustrating. It’s preventing me from properly testing my algorithm.

I’ve tried adjusting numerous parameters—including collision shapes, Contact Offset, and Rest Offset—but nothing seems to work. How can I avoid this cloth penetration issue?

scene.zip (25.4 MB)

from omni.isaac.dynamic_control import _dynamic_control
import numpy as np
dc = _dynamic_control.acquire_dynamic_control_interface()
articulation = dc.get_articulation("/World/Franka")
dc.wake_up_articulation(articulation)
panda_finger_joint2 = dc.find_articulation_dof(articulation, "panda_finger_joint2")
panda_finger_joint1 = dc.find_articulation_dof(articulation, "panda_finger_joint1")

panda_joint2= dc.find_articulation_dof(articulation, "panda_joint2")


dc.set_dof_position_target(panda_joint2, 0.3)
dc.set_dof_position_target(panda_finger_joint1, 0.04)
dc.set_dof_position_target(panda_finger_joint2, 0.04)
3

Hi @Julie_A, thank you for posting your issue. This scenario is particularly difficult since the cloth materials are thin so parts of the cloth can end-up penetrating into the finger and getting stuck. There are a few of things you can try to avoid these penetrations between the gripper pads and the cloth.

  1. Change the gripper finger collider mesh representation to be Convex mesh instead of SDF as it is currently configured in your setup. For this you will have the click on the mesh object nested within the finger prims, go to Collider properties, and change Approximation to Convex Hull.
  2. Reduce the gains in the controller. Very large gains in general can cause interpenetrations between objects even with rigid bodies. Try to reduce the damping and stiffness terms. I tried 10 on damping and 50 on stiffness on all joints, and 100 stiffness on gripper joints and it seemed to work well.
  3. Increase the physics simulation frequency. You can do this by clicking on PhysicsScene prim and then in the Properties change the Time Steps Per Second to something higher like 240, 360, etc.

Hope these pointers help. Let me know if you are still having issues.

Michael

4

Hello!

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