Using off‑the‑shelf VLA models in Isaac Sim without fine‑tuning

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Isaac Sim Version

5.1.0
5.0.0
4.5.0 V
4.2.0
4.1.0
4.0.0
4.5.0
2023.1.1
2023.1.0-hotfix.1
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Operating System

Ubuntu 24.04
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Ubuntu 20.04
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GPU Information

  • Model:RTX 4090
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Topic Description

Hello! I’m exploring whether it’s possible to use an open‑source Vision‑Language‑Action (VLA) model—such as NVIDIA’s GR00T‑N1.6‑3B—to control a robot in Isaac Sim through natural‑language commands without any additional fine‑tuning. I want to have the robot perform manipulation tasks, like picking up a cube and placing it elsewhere, based solely on a verbal or text instruction, using the model as‑is. Has anyone tried this? Is it realistically feasible to achieve accurate control with an off‑the‑shelf VLA model? If there are official documents, tutorials, or example projects on integrating existing VLA models with Isaac Sim for natural‑language‑based tasks, I’d appreciate any guidance or references.

Yes! You can definitely take Gr00t off the shelf and run inference for robot control without post-training. MMV depending on the type of robot embodiment you use. There are several pre-trained embodiments that will probably be the best to start with. And, you might have better luck starting with manipulator arms before jumping to a humanoid embodiment.

Have you looked through the repo documentation? ( Isaac-GR00T/README.md at main · NVIDIA/Isaac-GR00T · GitHub ) That’s a good start.

Also, here’s another interesting Gr00t Tutorial: “GR00T N1.5 Explained”.