Installation using Isaac Sim Binaries#

Installing Isaac Sim#

Downloading pre-built binaries#

Please follow the Isaac Sim documentation to install the latest Isaac Sim release.

To check the minimum system requirements,refer to the documentation here.

Note

We have tested Isaac Lab with Isaac Sim 4.0 release on Ubuntu 20.04LTS with NVIDIA driver 525.147.

On Linux systems, by default, Isaac Sim is installed in the directory ${HOME}/.local/share/ov/pkg/isaac_sim-*, with * corresponding to the Isaac Sim version.

On Windows systems, by default,Isaac Sim is installed in the directory C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\ov\pkg\isaac_sim-*, with * corresponding to the Isaac Sim version.

Installing Isaac Lab#

Cloning Isaac Lab#

Note

We recommend making a fork of the Isaac Lab repository to contribute to the project but this is not mandatory to use the framework. If you make a fork, please replace isaac-sim with your username in the following instructions.

Clone the Isaac Lab repository into your workspace:

git clone git@github.com:isaac-sim/IsaacLab.git
git clone https://github.com/isaac-sim/IsaacLab.git

Note

We provide a helper executable isaaclab.sh that provides utilities to manage extensions:

./isaaclab.sh --help

usage: isaaclab.sh [-h] [-i] [-f] [-p] [-s] [-t] [-o] [-v] [-d] [-c] -- Utility to manage Isaac Lab.

optional arguments:
   -h, --help           Display the help content.
   -i, --install [LIB]  Install the extensions inside Isaac Lab and learning frameworks (rl-games, rsl-rl, sb3, skrl) as extra dependencies. Default is 'all'.
   -f, --format         Run pre-commit to format the code and check lints.
   -p, --python         Run the python executable provided by Isaac Sim or virtual environment (if active).
   -s, --sim            Run the simulator executable (isaac-sim.sh) provided by Isaac Sim.
   -t, --test           Run all python unittest tests.
   -o, --docker         Run the docker container helper script (docker/container.sh).
   -v, --vscode         Generate the VSCode settings file from template.
   -d, --docs           Build the documentation from source using sphinx.
   -c, --conda [NAME]   Create the conda environment for Isaac Lab. Default name is 'isaaclab'.
isaaclab.bat --help

usage: isaaclab.bat [-h] [-i] [-f] [-p] [-s] [-v] [-d] [-c] -- Utility to manage Isaac Lab.

optional arguments:
   -h, --help           Display the help content.
   -i, --install [LIB]  Install the extensions inside Isaac Lab and learning frameworks (rl-games, rsl-rl, sb3, skrl) as extra dependencies. Default is 'all'.
   -f, --format         Run pre-commit to format the code and check lints.
   -p, --python         Run the python executable provided by Isaac Sim or virtual environment (if active).
   -s, --sim            Run the simulator executable (isaac-sim.bat) provided by Isaac Sim.
   -t, --test           Run all python unittest tests.
   -v, --vscode         Generate the VSCode settings file from template.
   -d, --docs           Build the documentation from source using sphinx.
   -c, --conda [NAME]   Create the conda environment for Isaac Lab. Default name is 'isaaclab'.

Setting up the conda environment (optional)#

Attention

This step is optional. If you are using the bundled python with Isaac Sim, you can skip this step.

The executable isaaclab.sh automatically fetches the python bundled with Isaac Sim, using ./isaaclab.sh -p command (unless inside a virtual environment). This executable behaves like a python executable, and can be used to run any python script or module with the simulator. For more information, please refer to the documentation.

Although using a virtual environment is optional, we recommend using conda. To install conda, please follow the instructions here. In case you want to use conda to create a virtual environment, you can use the following command:

# Option 1: Default name for conda environment is 'isaaclab'
./isaaclab.sh --conda  # or "./isaaclab.sh -c"
# Option 2: Custom name for conda environment
./isaaclab.sh --conda my_env  # or "./isaaclab.sh -c my_env"
:: Option 1: Default name for conda environment is 'isaaclab'
isaaclab.bat --conda  :: or "isaaclab.bat -c"
:: Option 2: Custom name for conda environment
isaaclab.bat --conda my_env  :: or "isaaclab.bat -c my_env"

If you are using conda to create a virtual environment, make sure to activate the environment before running any scripts. For example:

conda activate isaaclab  # or "conda activate my_env"

Once you are in the virtual environment, you do not need to use ./isaaclab.sh -p / isaaclab.bat -p to run python scripts. You can use the default python executable in your environment by running python or python3. However, for the rest of the documentation, we will assume that you are using ./isaaclab.sh -p / isaaclab.bat -p to run python scripts. This command is equivalent to running python or python3 in your virtual environment.

Installation#

  • Install dependencies using apt (on Linux only):

    # these dependency are needed by robomimic which is not available on Windows
    sudo apt install cmake build-essential
    
  • Run the install command that iterates over all the extensions in source/extensions directory and installs them using pip (with --editable flag):

./isaaclab.sh --install # or "./isaaclab.sh -i"
isaaclab.bat --install :: or "isaaclab.bat -i"

Note

By default, the above will install all the learning frameworks. If you want to install only a specific framework, you can pass the name of the framework as an argument. For example, to install only the rl_games framework, you can run

./isaaclab.sh --install rl_games  # or "./isaaclab.sh -i rl_games"
isaaclab.bat --install rl_games :: or "isaaclab.bat -i rl_games"

The valid options are rl_games, rsl_rl, sb3, skrl, robomimic, none.