Question: Is rigid-deformable contact force reporting supported in Isaac Sim / Isaac Lab?

[zhanglepy]

Hi Isaac Sim / Isaac Lab team,

Thank you for the excellent simulation framework. I am currently working on a robotics simulation task involving a rigid robot end-effector interacting with a deformable object.

I know that for rigid-rigid contacts, Isaac Lab provides ContactSensor / PhysX contact reporting functionality to obtain contact forces acting on rigid bodies. However, I am not sure whether the same functionality is available for rigid-deformable contacts.

I would like to ask:

1. Does Isaac Sim / Isaac Lab currently support retrieving contact forces between a rigid body and a deformable object?

2. Can ContactSensor or PhysX ContactReporter report contact forces when the contact pair is rigid body vs. deformable body?

3. If supported, is there an official example showing how to obtain:

   • contact points,
   • contact normals,
   • penetration depth,
   • normal contact force,
   • tangential/friction force,
   • total contact force acting on the rigid body?

4. If ContactSensor only supports rigid-rigid contacts, what is the recommended way to estimate rigid-deformable contact forces?
   For example, should users use deformable nodal forces, stress tensors, deformation energy, joint/actuator reaction forces, or a custom compliant contact model?

5. Is rigid-deformable contact force reporting planned for future Isaac Sim / Isaac Lab releases?

My target application is a robot probe pressing against a deformable soft body, where I need to record the contact force and force-displacement curve during the interaction.

Thank you very much for your guidance.