Since the contents of this repository are moved to space-ros/demos based on space-ros/space-ros#178, I believe this repository can be reused exclusively for Isaac Sim which leverages photorealistic simulations.

Feature Proposal

The proposal is to repurpose the current repository to manage the simualtion assets and extensions for Space ROS simulation with Nvidia's Isaac SIM. Eventually the repository will be repurposed as the extension pack of Space ROS provided for Nvidia's Isaac SIM. The assets are made photo-realistic with a minimal sim2real gap with the information provided in the internet resources. The assets are a compilation of large set of use cases related to Space ROS applications which is summarized below. In addition to the assets, new extensions are created for space ros demos which serve as an example for building an ecosystem of simualtion extensions which could grow over time. A detailed documentation of all the assets and extensions are provided to help with the usage of the extension module.

Environment Assets

1. International Space Station Model. Useful for Canadarm2 related maintainence and docking applications.
   

2. Interior of International Space Station. Useful for Astrobee and Robonaut2 for assistance related applications.

3. Mars Terrain. 800 sq.m area of realistic mars terrain data acquired from NASA's Mars Exploration Data.

4. Moon Terrain. 800 sq.m area of realistic moon terrain data acquired from NASA's Moon Exploraiton Data.

5. Simple Chess Envrionment for Robonaut2. Useful in manipulation and control related tasks for Robonaut2.

6. Simple Mars Replica for Ingenuity Helicopter. Useful for Visual Odometry, Search and Mission Planning related applidations.

Robot Assets

1. Canadarm2. The gazebosim equivalent of canadarm2 robot model.
2. Curiosity Mars Rover. The gazebosim equivalent of curiosity Mars rover.
3. Perseverance Mars Rover. The high fidelity Robot Model with advanced sensors for Mars exploration related tasks.
4. Robonaut2 Upper body. Manipulation tasks and planning for robonaut2 upper body.
5. Robonaut2 Full body. Useful for applications with Interior of ISS.
6. Ingenuity Helicopter. Aerial robot for search applications in mars terrain.
7. Canadarm2 Destro. The docking and maintainence robot for ISS.

IsaacSim Extensions

1. An SpaceROS specific Omnigraph extensions for controlling rovers with rocker-bogie mechanism
2. An example omnigraph extensions for building new extension specific to Space ROS

Documentation

1. Detailed description and information on Environment assets
2. Detailed description and usage instructions on robot assets
3. Detailed description and usage instructions on extensions

The assets are widely tested for its functionality and are mostly simulation ready at the moment. The demo packages are already being built for direct integration between gazebosim and isaac sim. These assets should help cover wide range of subdomains and features exptected to be built on space ROS project.

The potential directions moving forward from this feature is to create a standalone simulator built on top of Nvidia's Omniverse for better control in packaging and distributing the simulation assets and version controls of extensions.

MetaInfo

Title: Simulation Assets and Extensions for Nvidia's Isaac Sim
Freelancer ID: @selvakumarhs
NASA Space ROS SIM Challenge