Tutorial 5: Hybrid Simulation

Objective: Learn how to use different simulators for physics and rendering to get the best of both worlds.

What you’ll learn:

• Separating physics simulation from rendering

• Using MuJoCo for fast physics with Isaac Sim for high-quality rendering

• When to use hybrid simulation

Prerequisites: Completed Tutorial 4: Motion Planning

Estimated time: 25 minutes

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Hybrid simulation allows you to combine a fast physics engine with a high-quality renderer. This is useful when you need both computational efficiency and photorealistic images.

Running the Tutorial

python get_started/5_hybrid_sim.py  --sim <simulator> --renderer <renderer>

you can also render in the headless mode by adding --headless flag. By using this, there will be no window popping up and the rendering will also be faster.

By running the above command, you will simulate a hybrid system and it will automatically record a video. Here we demonstrate how to use one simulator for physics simulation and another simulator for rendering.

Examples

IsaacSim + Mujoco

python get_started/5_hybrid_sim.py  --sim mujoco --renderer isaacsim

You will get the following videos:

Mujoco as physics engine & IsaacSim as renderer

This hybrid simulation approach allows us to leverage the best of both worlds - the accurate physics simulation from Mujoco combined with the high-quality rendering capabilities of IsaacSim. This powerful combination enables both efficient physics computations and visually appealing results.