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Software: NVIDIA Isaac Sim Installation

Overview​

NVIDIA Isaac Sim is a high-fidelity robotics simulation platform built on Om

niverse, providing GPU-accelerated physics, ray-traced rendering, and synthetic data generation for training perception models.

Requirements:

  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3060 or better (12GB+ VRAM)
  • Storage: 50GB free space
  • OS: Ubuntu 22.04 or Windows 11

⚠️ Jetson Compatibility: Isaac Sim is NOT supported on Jetson Orin Nano due to insufficient VRAM. Use cloud or workstation for Module 3.

Installation Steps (Ubuntu 22.04)​

Step 1: Install Omniverse Launcher​

# Download Omniverse Launcher
cd ~/Downloads
wget https://install.launcher.omniverse.nvidia.com/installers/omniverse-launcher-linux.AppImage

# Make executable
chmod +x omniverse-launcher-linux.AppImage

# Run launcher
./omniverse-launcher-linux.AppImage

Step 2: Sign In and Install Isaac Sim​

  1. Create NVIDIA Account (if you don't have one)
  2. Sign in to Omniverse Launcher
  3. Click Exchange tab → Search for "Isaac Sim"
  4. Select Isaac Sim 2023.1.1 (recommended for ROS 2 Humble)
  5. Click Install (downloads ~15GB, takes 30-45 minutes)

Installation Path: ~/.local/share/ov/pkg/isaac_sim-2023.1.1/

Step 3: Verify Installation​

# Launch Isaac Sim
~/.local/share/ov/pkg/isaac_sim-2023.1.1/isaac-sim.sh

# Expected: Isaac Sim GUI opens with sample scene
# First launch takes 2-3 minutes (shader compilation)

Step 4: Install ROS 2 Bridge​

# Navigate to Isaac Sim directory
cd ~/.local/share/ov/pkg/isaac_sim-2023.1.1

# Install ROS 2 dependencies
./python.sh -m pip install --upgrade pip
./python.sh -m pip install rospy-message-converter

# Source ROS 2 environment
source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash

# Verify bridge
./python.sh standalone_examples/api/omni.isaac.ros2_bridge/ros2_sample.py

Cloud Installation (Docker Method)​

For cloud instances without GUI, use Isaac Sim container:

# Install NVIDIA Container Toolkit
distribution=$(. /etc/os-release;echo $ID$VERSION_ID)
curl -fsSL https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/gpgkey | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg
curl -s -L https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/$distribution/libnvidia-container.list | \
    sed 's#deb https://#deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg] https://#g' | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-container-toolkit.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y nvidia-container-toolkit

# Pull Isaac Sim container
docker pull nvcr.io/nvidia/isaac-sim:2023.1.1

# Run headless
docker run --name=isaac-sim --entrypoint bash -it --gpus all -e "ACCEPT_EULA=Y" --rm --network=host \
    -v ~/docker/isaac-sim/cache/kit:/isaac-sim/kit/cache:rw \
    -v ~/docker/isaac-sim/cache/ov:/root/.cache/ov:rw \
    -v ~/docker/isaac-sim/cache/pip:/root/.cache/pip:rw \
    -v ~/docker/isaac-sim/cache/glcache:/root/.cache/nvidia/GLCache:rw \
    -v ~/docker/isaac-sim/cache/computecache:/root/.nv/ComputeCache:rw \
    -v ~/docker/isaac-sim/logs:/root/.nvidia-omniverse/logs:rw \
    -v ~/docker/isaac-sim/data:/root/.local/share/ov/data:rw \
    -v ~/docker/isaac-sim/documents:/root/Documents:rw \
    nvcr.io/nvidia/isaac-sim:2023.1.1

Verification Tests​

Test 1: GPU Detection​

# Inside Isaac Sim Python environment
~/.local/share/ov/pkg/isaac_sim-2023.1.1/python.sh

>>> from pxr import Usd, UsdGeom
>>> import carb
>>> carb.get_framework().get_renderer_info()
# Should show NVIDIA GPU model

Test 2: Run Sample Scene​

# Launch Carter robot navigation demo
~/.local/share/ov/pkg/isaac_sim-2023.1.1/isaac-sim.sh standalone_examples/api/omni.isaac.wheeled_robots/carter_lidar.py

Expected: Carter robot appears in 3D viewport, lidar rays visible, FPS >20.

Test 3: ROS 2 Bridge Test​

Terminal 1: Start Isaac Sim with ROS bridge

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
~/.local/share/ov/pkg/isaac_sim-2023.1.1/isaac-sim.sh standalone_examples/api/omni.isaac.ros2_bridge/clock.py

Terminal 2: Check ROS topics

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
ros2 topic list

# Expected output includes:
# /clock
# /rosout

✅ Success: If /clock topic is publishing, ROS 2 bridge is working!

Performance Optimization​

1. Enable RTX Mode (for RTX GPUs)​

# In Isaac Sim scripts
import omni.replicator.core as rep
rep.settings.carb_settings("/rtx/pathtracing/spp", 16)  # Samples per pixel
rep.settings.carb_settings("/rtx/pathtracing/maxBounces", 4)

2. Adjust Physics Timestep​

# For faster-than-realtime simulation
from omni.isaac.core.utils.physics import simulate_async
simulate_async(1/240.0)  # 240 Hz physics (vs default 60 Hz)

3. Reduce Shadow Quality (for FPS boost)​

In Isaac Sim GUI:

  • Edit → Preferences → Rendering
  • Set "Shadow Map Size" to 1024 (from 2048)
  • Disable "Ambient Occlusion" if not needed

Troubleshooting​

Issue: "vulkan: error getting physical device properties"​

Cause: NVIDIA driver or Vulkan not properly installed.

Solution:

# Install Vulkan support
sudo apt install mesa-vulkan-drivers vulkan-tools
vulkaninfo | grep "deviceName"

# Update NVIDIA driver if needed
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
sudo reboot

Issue: Isaac Sim crashes on launch​

Cause: Insufficient VRAM or GPU not supported.

Solution:

# Check GPU VRAM
nvidia-smi --query-gpu=name,memory.total --format=csv

# Minimum: 12GB VRAM
# If less, reduce scene complexity or use cloud GPU

Issue: ROS 2 topics not visible​

Cause: ROS 2 environment not sourced before launching Isaac Sim.

Solution:

# ALWAYS source ROS 2 first
source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
~/.local/share/ov/pkg/isaac_sim-2023.1.1/isaac-sim.sh

Next Steps​

✅ Isaac Sim installed!

Module 3 (Weeks 8-10):

  • Week 8: Isaac Sim Setup (coming soon)
  • Week 9: Perception Pipeline (coming soon)
  • Week 10: Advanced Perception (coming soon)

Additional Resources​

Installation Complete! Ready for Module 3 perception work.