What is the best method to connect and control a Universal Robot from Isaac Sim?

Omniverse Isaac Sim
1

Isaac Sim Version

5.1.0
5.0.0
4.5.0
4.2.0
4.1.0
4.0.0

Operating System

Ubuntu 24.04
Ubuntu 22.04
Ubuntu 20.04
Windows 11
Windows 10
Other (please specify):

GPU Information

  • Model: NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation
  • Driver Version: 12.8

Topic Description

Hello,

So I am doing work with setting up a digital twin using a UR16e robot manipulator arm using Isaac Sim. I am currently using the ur_robot_driver, and I am attempting to send joint position information from Isaac Sim using an omnigraph to the ur_robot_driver. The current issue I am facing is with Isaac Sim publishing a sensor_msgs/msg/JointStates topic, and it seems that I need to convert that to a std_msgs/msg/FloatMultiArray topic. and I am wondering if this is even an efficient method to do this, or if I am thinking about this all wrong.

Is there an easier way to send position information from Isaac Sim to the driver?

Or, in this case, is Isaac Sim going to be used as a visualization tool, and I have something else sending information to the real UR16e?

How do you achive bidirectional communication in Isaac Sim?
3

Here is a related post and it might be useful for your case Nvidia Isaac Sim: Revolutionizing Robotics with Digital Twins Using Ros2 Humble

Usually the way of communication is through ROS2 topics. I think you are on the right track.

I wouldn’t call Isaac Sim as a visualization tool because it doesn’t really visualize what is happening on the real system. It is just simulating what could happen on the real system (still a simulation tool). If you have a low fidelity model in Isaac Sim, what you see in it would be different from the real world.

4

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