Installation — Native

This guide covers installing SRB natively on your system without containerization. Although this approach simplifies development, it requires more manual setup and decreases reproducibility.

1. Clone the Repository

First, clone the SRB repository with all submodules:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/AndrejOrsula/space_robotics_bench.git

2. Install NVIDIA Isaac Sim 4.5

Official instructions: Isaac Sim — Workstation Installation

Install Isaac Sim either by following the official instructions above or using the provided convenience script:

./space_robotics_bench/scripts/install_isaacsim.bash "$HOME/isaac-sim"

ISAAC_SIM_PYTHON

It is highly recommended to make ISAAC_SIM_PYTHON point to the Python entrypoint of Isaac Sim in your shell configuration (the script above will prompt you to do so):

A. bash
echo "export ISAAC_SIM_PYTHON='$HOME/isaac-sim/python.sh'" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
B. zsh
echo "export ISAAC_SIM_PYTHON='$HOME/isaac-sim/python.sh'" >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc
C. fish
set -Ux ISAAC_SIM_PYTHON "$HOME/isaac-sim/python.sh"

3. Install NVIDIA Isaac Lab 2.0

Official instructions: Isaac Lab — Installation

Install Isaac Lab either by following the official instructions above or using the provided convenience script:

./space_robotics_bench/scripts/install_isaaclab.bash "$HOME/isaaclab"

4. Install Blender 4.3 with SimForge

Official instructions: Blender — Install from blender.org

  1. Install Blender by following the official instructions for downloading and extracting its archive.
  2. Ensure that the blender executable is accessible from your system's PATH.
  3. Install SimForge with its assets within the Blender Python environment.

As an example, the commands below will install Blender in your home directory and create a symbolic link to $HOME/.local/bin/blender (assuming it is in your PATH):

export BLENDER_VERSION="4.3.2"
export BLENDER_VERSION_SHORT=$(echo $BLENDER_VERSION | sed 's/\.[^.]*$//')
mkdir -p $HOME/blender
curl -fsSL "https://download.blender.org/release/Blender$BLENDER_VERSION_SHORT/blender-$BLENDER_VERSION-linux-x64.tar.xz" | tar xJ -C $HOME/blender --strip-components=1
ln -sf $HOME/blender/blender $HOME/.local/bin/blender
"$HOME/blender/$BLENDER_VERSION_SHORT/python/bin/python3.11" -m pip install simforge[assets]

Avoid installing Blender through Snap, as it would prevent the integration of the required Python dependencies within its environment.

5. Install the Space Robotics Bench

Install the srb package in editable mode:

"$ISAAC_SIM_PYTHON" -m pip install --editable ./space_robotics_bench[all]

Note: The all extra installs optional dependencies to support all workflows and improve usability. Feel free to check pyproject.toml and adjust the extras to your needs.

Setup CLI

Make the srb CLI command available in your shell through the provided script:

./space_robotics_bench/scripts/setup_cli.bash

Note: In case the script fails, the srb CLI is still accessible via "$ISAAC_SIM_PYTHON" -m srb.

6. Verify Installation

After the installation, verify that everything works as expected.

Isaac Sim

Confirm that you can launch Isaac Sim:

"$HOME/isaac-sim/isaac-sim.sh"

Note: The first launch might take a while because Isaac Sim needs to compile shaders and prepare the environment.

Isaac Lab

Confirm that Isaac Lab is installed:

"$ISAAC_SIM_PYTHON" -m pip show isaaclab

Space Robotics Bench

Verify that the entrypoint script of SRB is available in the Python environment of Isaac Sim:

"$ISAAC_SIM_PYTHON" -m srb --help

Verify that the srb command is available:

srb --help

Verify that argument completion works:

srb <TAB> <TAB>

... continue with Basic Usage

Extras

Development

To improve your development experience, consider configuring your IDE (guide).