Trying To Understand What Isaac Really Is And Whether It is a Viable Platform For Production Use

Autonomous Machines Isaac Isaac SDK
#1

I am trying to get some clarification about what Isaac really is.

I’ve watched the Building Robotics Applications Webinar, I have browsed through the documentation for a few hours, and I have looked at some samples in the //app/samples//pwm directory.

Based upon this, I have the following questions:

  1. The libpwm_module.so under the sdk/packages_jetpack44/pwm/ directory is a pre-compiled library. Is there any source available for it?
  2. The documentation for the isaac.pwm.PwmController class talks about a servo motor driver (PCA9685). Does Isaac support driving DC motors with something like this high power motor driver over PWM?
  3. The webinars and documentation of Isaac is branding it as a tool to help with rapid development and testing of AI enabled robotic applications, even with hardware in the loop testing. Is Isaac meant to be used in production? If so then why does the PWM class only support a simple servo module from Adafruit? That’s more of a hobbyist type product and not a production ready device.
  4. Is Isaac Closed Source??

Feels like either I am missing something or Isaac is not usable beyond simple prototyping, and cannot be deployed to a production environment.

1 Like
#2

Isaac SDK is both a message-passing framework and (Engine) and a collection of packages (SDK) built on top of that framework that can be used as part of a robotics autonomy stack.

  1. The source for PWMController is not available.
  2. Not directly, but you can write your own codelet for it.
  3. Most of the hardware-focused material is for commonly available hobbyist motors for accessibility.
  4. The source for Isaac SDK is not publicly available, no.

Depending on your production requirements, what from the SDK you were planning on using, and your needs to maintain and patch the source, Isaac SDK may or may not be appropriate.