Spot IsaacSim — Simulation Environment

Isaac Sim environment for Boston Dynamics Spot with 6 RGB-D cameras and ROS2 bridge

Requirements

• Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
• CUDA 12.8+ (Recommended: RTX 3000+)
• ~30 GB of free disk

Installation

0. Clone the repo

git clone --recurse-submodules <repo-url>
cd spot-sim

1. Install just

sudo snap install just --classic

2. Install the simulation environment

just install-sim

Important

Isaac Sim already has internal ROS2 libraries. Do not source your local ROS2 installation (source /opt/ros/<distro>/setup.bash) in .bashrc — this causes conflicts when running Isaac Sim.

Usage

Run just to see all available commands:

just

Run the simulation

just run-spot-sim          # with viewport
just run-spot-sim-h        # headless mode

The --task flag selects a named task configuration (default: _default):

just run-spot-sim -- --task my_task

Each task lives in scripts/spot_isaacsim/tasks/<name>/task.py and owns its scene build, camera/bridge config, and lifecycle hooks.

Project Structure

spot-isaacsim/
├── assets/                     # Robot + object assets (Spot, drill, jar, etc.)
├── external/                   # Git submodules
│   ├── relic/                    # Spot URDF/USD assets
│   ├── curobo/                   # Motion planning & IK
│   ├── IsaacRobotics/            # Isaac Robotics utilities
│   └── zed-isaac-sim/            # ZED camera extension for Isaac Sim
├── scripts/
│   ├── spot_isaacsim/          # Main: Isaac Sim + ROS2 bridge
│   │   ├── play.py               # Entry point (just run-spot-sim)
│   │   ├── tasks/                # Named task configs (--task flag)
│   │   ├── scene/                # Scene setup (builder.py, loaders/, scene_cfg.yaml)
│   │   ├── omnigraph/            # ROS2 bridge (OmniGraph)
│   │   ├── control/
│   │   │   ├── components/       # Locomotion, arm IK, collision avoidance
│   │   │   └── interfaces/       # Keyboard and ROS controllers
│   │   └── spot_config/          # Robot configuration and constants
│   └── tools/                  # Utility scripts (install, patch)
├── justfile                    # Task runner (run 'just' for all commands)
└── pyproject.toml              # uv dependency management

ROS2 Interface

The simulation node is named grasp_executor and communicates over ROS_DOMAIN_ID=77.

Published topics

Topic	Type	Description
/spot/camera/<cam>/image	sensor_msgs/Image	RGB image per camera
/spot/camera/<cam>/camera_info	sensor_msgs/CameraInfo	RGB camera intrinsics
/spot/depth_registered/<cam>/image	sensor_msgs/Image	Depth image per camera
/spot/depth_registered/<cam>/camera_info	sensor_msgs/CameraInfo	Depth camera intrinsics
/joint_states	sensor_msgs/JointState	Robot joint states
/tf / /tf_static	tf2_msgs/TFMessage	Robot + camera transforms

Cameras: hand, frontleft, frontright, left, right, rear. Which cameras are published is configured per-task via publishing_cameras in the task's BridgeConfig.

Subscribed topics

Topic	Type	Description
/graspgen/arm_joint_command	trajectory_msgs/JointTrajectory	Arm joint trajectory commands

Services (std_srvs/Trigger)

Service	Description
/grasp_executor/pick	Full sequence: approach → grasp → retrieve
/grasp_executor/approach	Move arm to pre-grasp pose
/grasp_executor/grasp	Close gripper
/grasp_executor/retrieve	Lift arm after grasp
/grasp_executor/approach_and_grasp	Approach + close gripper
/grasp_executor/move_to	Walk robot to face target
/grasp_executor/home	Return arm to home position
/grasp_executor/trajectory	Execute a joint trajectory

Documentation

Doc	Description
docs/tasks.md	Task plugin system — how to create and configure tasks
docs/robot_control.md	Keyboard and ROS2 control interfaces

Configuration

• Tasks: Create scripts/spot_isaacsim/tasks/<name>/task.py with a Task class implementing build(), on_setup(), update(), on_reinitialize(), on_shutdown(). Select it with --task <name>.
• Scene: Edit scripts/spot_isaacsim/scene/scene_cfg.yaml to change objects, stage, robot spawn, and lighting. Asset physics uses a nested physics: block (rigid_body, material).
• Environment: Use just run <script> to run scripts inside the simulation Python environment (via uv run).
• ROS2: ROS_DOMAIN_ID=77 and RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_cyclonedds_cpp are written into the venv activate script at install time. Make sure the ROS2 consumer uses the same domain ID.

License

MIT License