Nvidia has updated Isaac SDK, its robotic AI development platform, with new simulation capabilities and new DNNs. Isaac Software Development Kit (SDK) is a toolbox for accelerating the development and deployment of AI-powered robots.

The SDK includes the Isaac Engine (application framework), Isaac GEMs (packages with high-performance robotics algorithms), Isaac Apps (reference applications) and Isaac Sim for Navigation (a simulation platform). Nvidia Isaac SDK can be used for simulation, navigation, and manipulation. Nvidia says the SDK accelerates robot development for manufacturers, researchers, and startups by making it easier to add AI for perception and navigation into modern-day robots.

The Isaac Sim virtual robotics lab and 3D simulator gives developers a way to use virtual robots with simulated sensors to test applications in a high-fidelity simulation environment. Once tested in the simulator, applications can be deployed to NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier, Jetson TX2, or Jetson Nano running on physical robots.

The previous release of Isaac included perception features including Fiducials, Superpixels, and Stereo Depth DNN, as well as navigational capabilities such as LQR Planner. The new release adds support for neural network training in simulation, and multi-robot simulation with hardware in the loop (HIL) for validation and testing.

The  GPU Accelerated Perception(GEMs) can be used for sensing, planning, or actuation that can be easily plugged into a robotics application. Examples of their use include obstacle detection, stereo depth estimation, or human speech recognition. The GEMs can be used outside Isaac SDK using C API without fully integrating a software stack with ISAAC SDK. Isaac SDK includes GEMS for audio (text to speech, speech recognition), Fiducials, Superpixels, and Path planning, as well as multi-class segmentation DNN; object detection with ResNet; 3D object pose detection DNN; stereo visual inertial odometry; and 2D skeleton pose estimation DNN (OpenPose).

Isaac SDK is available for download from the Nvidia developer site.  

More Information

Isaac SDK On Nvidia Developer Website

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