The Isaac AMR release is intended for evaluation of the Isaac AMR stack using the Nova Carter reference robot. This platform is still under development and has limitations and constraints, which are detailed below and in the Known Bugs and Limitations section.
The Isaac AMR platform is only available for members of the Isaac Developer Program. Sign up for the program before following any of the instructions in this documentation.
Fig. 1 Isaac Software Stack
These are the tentpole features packaged with Isaac:
The map development pipeline (using the Nova Carter robot) for generating occupancy and semantic maps–including both a cloud based map creation service and labeling tool.
An advanced Navigation Stack, which uses Lidar and semantic maps to navigate an environment
Integration of the Navigation Stack with Isaac Sim to enable software-in-the-loop (SIL) testing
A reference mission control solution that integrates with the cloud-based map service and cuOpt service.
With Isaac, you can perform the following tasks:
Configure and get set up with the Nova Carter.
Collect data for robot calibration and map creation.
Upload the data to the NVIDIA cloud-based map creation service to generate 3D/2D occupancy maps.
Use a cloud-based semantic labeling tool to create semantic maps.
Use the occupancy or semantic map with the Navigation Stack (a Python app).
Run the Navigation Stack with various configurations (with/without a semantic map) in Flatsim, in Isaac Sim, and on the Nova Carter.
Use Isaac Sim (on the public cloud platform) to test out the Nova Carter Simulation, sample warehouse environment, and integration with the Navigation Stack.
Use the reference mission control containers to generate a route plan with the cuOpt library and send the missions to the Nova Carter (either in the real world or simulation).
Isaac has the following limitations:
The platform is under development and may have user interfaces that are not intuitive or easy to use.
All on-robot apps, such as the data recorder and navigation, require a Nova reference robot (i.e. Nova Carter).
Navigation is limited to specific, indoors-only ODDs (as described in the Release Notes).
Isaac Sim is delivered in a Docker container.
The following are not supported in Isaac:
Support for compute or sensors that are not part of Nova architecture (the Navigation Stack only supports Lidar and IMU sensors)
Adaptation of the Isaac platform to robots other than Nova Carter
Publicly available Isaac Sim versions
To help you use the Isaac tools and services, we have included comprehensive documentation, which is divided into three main parts.
An overview (including Release Notes) and the Getting Started tutorial.
Tutorials for some of the main use cases, including mapping, autonomous navigation on Carter <running_the_navigation_stack_on_carter>, and autonomous navigation in simulation <running_the_navigation_stack_in_isaac_sim>. The tutorials section includes images and links to helpful videos.
Details on the Isaac AMR Platform, including Tools documentation and a Troubleshooting and FAQs <troubleshooting_and_faqs> section.