Example of Hydroelastic Contact modeling in Isaac Sim with Newton Backend

[KeranYe]

Setup:

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Isaac Sim 6.0.1
• Newton (v1.2.1, prebundled in Isaac Sim)

Expected Scenario:

Enable hydroelastic contact in isaac sim.

Question:

Is it possible to develop an example like "example_robot_panda_hydro.py" from newton but to run with isaac sim (with newton backend)?
How the roadmap should look like?

[vick-yu]

Great question. The short answer is: not yet in 6.0.1, but fully supported in the upcoming 6.1.0 release.

Current status (Isaac Sim 6.0.1 / Newton 1.2.1)

The Newton 1.2.1 package bundled with 6.0.1 does include HydroelasticSDF
and the standalone example_robot_panda_hydro.py example -- you can run it
directly via Newton's standalone Python API. However, the isaacsim.physics.newton
USD-driven extension does not yet wire hydroelastic contact into the Isaac Sim
simulation pipeline. When you press Play in Isaac Sim 6.0.1, Newton uses its
standard collision path regardless of any USD attributes, so there is no way to
opt shapes into hydroelastic contact from within the Isaac Sim authoring
workflow in this release.

What's coming in Isaac Sim 6.1.0

Isaac Sim 6.1.0 (releasing this week) adds first-class hydroelastic contact
support integrated into the Isaac Sim USD authoring workflow. The key points:

• Hydroelastic contact is opt-in per shape via the Newton SDF Collider schema
  (NewtonSDFCollisionAPI), applied from the Property panel under
  Add > Physics > Newton > Newton SDF Collider or via script.
• Both shapes in a contact pair must opt in for hydroelastic contacts to be
  generated.
• Pipeline-wide settings (contact reduction, buffer sizes) are configured at
  runtime via configure_newton() after the stage is loaded.
• A ready-to-run Isaac Sim standalone example ships with 6.1.0 at
  standalone_examples/api/isaacsim.physics.newton/nut_bolt_hydroelastic.py.

Once 6.1.0 documentation is online, the following pages will have the full
parameter reference and step-by-step walkthrough:

• Hydroelastic Contact -- contact model overview, USD attribute reference,
  and runtime configuration
• Configure Hydroelastic Contact for a Nut-and-Bolt Assembly -- UI and
  scripting walkthrough for conforming geometry

In the meantime, the Newton standalone example example_robot_panda_hydro.py
(in the Newton pip bundle) is a useful reference for contact parameter intuition,
since the 6.1.0 integration uses the same underlying Newton API -- just driven
from USD attributes rather than ModelBuilder calls.

If you have questions in the interim, feel free to ask here.