Matrix Production

This package demonstrates a factory scenario with software-defined assembly workflow. In a simulated factory environment, multiple AMRs transport materials between assembly stations, while the robotic arm at each assembly station picks the requested material and places it on the docked AMR. The multiple robots are each controlled by an Isaac SDK application, and the missions of each application are assigned by a centralized mission coordinator.

This example uses NVIDIA Omniverse Isaac Sim. To set up and start Omniverse, refer to the respective documentation:

Once Omniverse is running, from the Content panel load the stage:

Copy
Copied!
            

omni:/Isaac/Samples/Isaac_SDK/Scenario/multi_robot_fof.usd

On the Robot Engine Bridge panel, change the Application Json Path to:

Copy
Copied!
            

<your isaac folder>/sdk/packages/multi_robot_fof/isaacsim.app.json

Click Create Application to the Isaac SDK backend, then click Play to start the simulation.

Note

Make sure you update the application JSON Path before clicking Create Application. If you see an error message “Application Was Not Started Successfully” at the bottom of Omniverse window, check that the application JSON Path is a valid file.

Once the simulation is started, open a new terminal, navigate to the Isaac SDK folder, and run:

Copy
Copied!
            

bob@desktop:~/isaac/sdk$ bazel run packages/multi_robot_fof:factory_mission

This launches the mission coordinator.

Open a second new terminal, navigate to Isaac SDK folder, and run:

Copy
Copied!
            

bob@desktop:~/isaac/sdk$ ./packages/multi_robot_fof/launch_robots.sh

This launches seven Isaac SDK applications: three transporter apps (//packages/multi_robot_fof:transporter) to control the three AMRs and four station apps (//packages/multi_robot_fof:station) to control the UR10 arms at the assembly stations.

Note

This script runs packages/multi_robot_fof:build_graph first to generate the pose2 planner graph, which may take a few seconds. After this, it proceeds to launch the transporter and station apps, which may take a while to build when running the first time.

Once all the applications are started, open Sight for mission coordinate at localhost:2999. The “Map Viewer” window shows the current pose, goal, and planned global path for all the AMRs. You can also check Sight for individual robot’s apps at localhost:4000-4006. The screenshot below shows Sight for mission coordinate and transport robot 1.

sight.png

The figure below shows how the multiple Isaac SDK apps and the simulator are connected. Solid lines with arrow represent data flow through Isaac Capnp Proto messages over TCP.

app_graph.jpg

In the Omniverse simulator, each AMRs and robotic arms publish sensor data and receive actuation command from the respective Isaac SDK app (transporter/station) on a different pair of TCP ports, as noted in the figure. The node name in the packages/multi_robot_fof/isaacsim.app.json matches the nodeName for the RobotEngine components in Omniverse simulator.

node_name.png

The factory mission app uses MissionServer MissionServer to publish missions to and receive mission status from individual transporter or station apps. For the transporter app, the mission behavior controls navigation.go_to.go_to_behavior node and specifies the goal waypoint and arrival tolerance. For station app, the mission behavior specifies the name of the picked object on pose tree and the dropoff pose. The figure below shows the behavior tree of the station app.

station_mission.jpg

Note

When the station app complete a mission, you see the error message Component ‘task_remain_checker/PyCodelet’ of type ‘isaac::alice::PyCodelet’ reported FAILURE: All tasks are done.’, and subsequent error message from other behavior tree components. This is the expected behavior given the behavior tree construct shown above.

© Copyright 2018-2020, NVIDIA Corporation. Last updated on Oct 30, 2023.