Adding Sensors
Camera Sensor
Camera sensor is an integral part of any robotics use case as it is one of primary mechanism used by robots to perceive their world.
Cameras in Omniverse Isaac Sim do their best to emulate real world cameras and their functionality is as similar as possible.
Simulating a camera sensor and exposing the ground truth synthetic data is done in Omniverse Isaac Sim via the replicator extension.
This camera sensor data is consumed by end users in different message formats. Isaac Sim supports two different ways of exposing the sensor data: ROS/ROS2 Bridges and Python numpy arrays.
Lidar Sensor
Lidar is a remote sensing method that targets an object with a laser and determines ranges by measuring the time taken for the reflected light to return to the receiver.
Simulating a lidar sensor and exposing the ground truth synthetic data is done in Omniverse Isaac Sim via the lidar component in omni.isaac.range_sensor extension.
In Omniverse Isaac Sim, we support numerous samples that leverage synthetic data from lidar sensor.
Generic Sensor
Generic Sensor works the same way as a lidar, but the generic sensor lets users have full control of the scanning pattern and gives users more flexibilities on sensor behavior.
Simulating a lidar sensor and exposing the ground truth synthetic data is done in Omniverse Isaac Sim via the generic range sensor component in omni.isaac.range_sensor extension.
Ultrasonic Sensor
Ultrasonic sensors is an electronic device that targets an object with ultrasonic sound waves and determines ranges by measuring the time taken for the ultrasonic wave to return to the receiver.
Simulating a ultrasonic sensor and exposing the ground truth synthetic data is done in Omniverse Isaac Sim via the ultrasonic component in omni.isaac.range_sensor extension.
Contact Sensor
Contact sensors measure the surface load applied to a body.
In Omniverse Isaac Sim, we simulate contact sensor by summing all forces applied on a given trigger spherical region intersected with the given body surface via the omni.isaac.sensor extension.
IMU Sensor
IMU sensor measures the linear acceleration and angular velocity applied to a body
In Omniverse Isaac Sim, we simulate the IMU sensor by extracting the linear acceleration and angular velocity of the body from the physics engine and apply local transformation of the sensor to simulate the sensor output via the omni.isaac.sensor extension.
Effort Sensor
Effort sensor measures the efforts applied to a joint. For prismatic joints, the magnitude of force is measured and for revolute joints, the maginitude of torque is measured.
In Omniverse Isaac Sim, we simulate the effort sensor by using the articulation class and exposing the data through omni.isaac.sensor extension.
Publishing Data to ROS
Isaac Sim offers different ways of publishing the simulated sensor data.
ROS
ROS Bridge supports numerous components to interact to ROS/ROS2 and publish sensor data.