Design Your Robot on Hardware-in-the-Loop with NVIDIA Jetson

In this post, we explore how Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing with the NVIDIA Isaac platform can lead to safer, more reliable, and more efficient robotics products. We introduce the NVIDIA Isaac Sim simulator, which provides a simulated environment for testing robotics algorithms, and NVIDIA Isaac ROS, hardware-accelerated software optimized for NVIDIA Jetson that contains machine learning, computer vision, and localization algorithms.

NVIDIA Isaac Sim

NVIDIA Isaac Sim provides a photo-real, physically accurate, virtual environment for testing robotics and computer vision algorithms. With Isaac Sim, you can create smarter and more advanced robots. You can interact with Isaac Sim working with ROS or ROS 2, or Python.

NVIDIA Isaac ROS

NVIDIA Isaac ROS offers a range of advanced features and tools to help you build smarter, more capable robots. By using Isaac ROS as part of the NVIDIA Isaac platform, you can create sophisticated robotics applications that perform complex tasks with precision and accuracy. In this post, we include examples of how to run HIL for various Isaac ROS packages, including vslam, apriltag, nvblox, and Proximity segmentation.

Hardware specifications and setup

To run HIL testing with NVIDIA Jetson, you need a workstation or laptop, a graphics card with NVIDIA RTX Display, keyboard and mouse, and an NVIDIA Jetson module (AGX Orin or Orin NX) with JetPack 5+. Wired Ethernet connection is preferred for transferring large amounts of data.

Isaac ROS packages to try in this demo

In this post, we focus on packages for localization, mapping, and AprilTag detection, but you can modify the repository to test other packages as needed. We provide examples of using rviz to drive your robot in all environments and see the map generated from nvblox.

Summary

This post shows you how to set up hardware-in-the-loop and testing with your NVIDIA Jetson Isaac ROS module and how to try NVIDIA Isaac Sim. By using HIL testing with the NVIDIA Isaac platform, you can validate and optimize the performance of your robotics software stack, leading to safer, more reliable, and more efficient products.