Add multirotor/thruster actuator, multirotor asset and manager-based LMF2 drone task #3760

grzemal · 2025-10-18T15:04:44Z

Description

This PR introduces multirotor and thruster support and adds a manager-based example/task for the LMF2 drone. The change contains a new low-level thruster actuator model, a new Multirotor articulation asset class + configs, new thrust actions, and a manager-based drone task (LMF2) with MDP configs and RL agent configs.

Motivation and context

Provides a reusable multirotor abstraction and a parameterized thruster actuator model so we can simulate multirotor vehicles (quad/hex/other).
Adds a manager-based LMF2 drone task and configuration files to enable repro and training workflows for the LMF2 platform.
Consolidates drone-specific code and prepares the repo for future control/sensor improvements.

Type of change

New feature (non-breaking addition of new functionality)
Documentation update (added docs/comments where applicable)

Files changed (high-level summary)

New/major files added:
- source/isaaclab/isaaclab/actuators/thruster.py (new thruster actuator model)
- source/isaaclab/isaaclab/assets/articulation/multirotor.py (new multirotor articulation)
- source/isaaclab/isaaclab/assets/articulation/multirotor_cfg.py
- source/isaaclab/isaaclab/assets/articulation/multirotor_data.py
- source/isaaclab/isaaclab/envs/mdp/actions/thrust_actions.py
- source/isaaclab_assets/isaaclab_assets/robots/lmf2.py and LMF2 URDF + asset files (lmf2.urdf, lmf2.zip, .asset_hash)
- source/isaaclab_tasks/isaaclab_tasks/manager_based/drone_ntnu/* (new task code, commands, observations, rewards, state-based control configs and agent configs)
Modified:
- source/isaaclab/isaaclab/actuators/actuator_cfg.py (register thruster config)
- source/isaaclab/isaaclab/envs/mdp/actions/actions_cfg.py (register thrust actions)
- small edits to various utils and types, and docs/make.bat
Total diff (branch vs main when I checked): 33 files changed, ~2225 insertions, 65 deletions

Dependencies

No new external top-level dependencies introduced. The branch adds assets (binary .zip) — ensure Git LFS is used if you want large assets tracked by LFS.
The new drone task references standard repo-internal packages and Isaac Sim; no external pip packages required beyond the repo standard.

Checklist (status)

I have read and understood the contribution guidelines
I have run the pre-commit checks with ./isaaclab.sh --format
I have made corresponding changes to the documentation
My changes generate no new warnings
I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
I have updated the changelog and the corresponding version in the extension's config/extension.toml file
I have added my name to the CONTRIBUTORS.md or my name already exists there

… thrusters, new thruster actor class

…sation not visible

…pth image

pascal-roth

Thanks for getting the PR up, looks already great!

Here some comments regarding but have to do a deep dive when I have more time

pascal-roth · 2025-10-21T22:57:33Z

docs/make.bat

What changed in this file that all lines are deleted and readded? They appear to be the same for me

as well it was not clear to me, but maybe this change fixes that issue: fc2ff6c

pascal-roth · 2025-10-21T22:59:17Z

source/isaaclab/isaaclab/actuators/actuator_cfg.py

+    # stiffness = 0.1 # only necessary to make this conform with Isaac
+    # damping = 0.1 # only necessary to make this conform with Isaac


Can be removed?

addressed in 3292b8d

pascal-roth · 2025-10-21T23:01:45Z

source/isaaclab/isaaclab/actuators/actuator_cfg.py

+    # stiffness = 0.1 # only necessary to make this conform with Isaac
+    # damping = 0.1 # only necessary to make this conform with Isaac
+
+    dt: float = 0.01


This should probably be relative to the step time of PhysX timesteps (otherwise can intrigue infeasible cases where Physx timestamp > dt)

yes, changed to set this parameter based on the sim.dt: cdb9380

pascal-roth · 2025-10-21T23:02:29Z

source/isaaclab/isaaclab/actuators/actuator_cfg.py

+    num_motors: int = 4
+    """Number of motors/propulsors on the vehicle."""


Shouldn't that not be readable from the urdf? Similar to joints?

pascal-roth · 2025-10-21T23:04:01Z

source/isaaclab/isaaclab/actuators/actuator_cfg.py

+    thrust_const_range: tuple[float, float] = (9.26312e-06, 1.826312e-05)
+    """Range for thrust coefficient :math:`k_f` when ``use_rps=True`` [N/(rps²)]."""


Question: where are all of these default values coming from? They seem to be very specific while the general Thruster class should be generic

yes, they are platform/hardware depended (so in this case LMF2 specific). we will moved them where we load the LMF2 robot model and keep the thruster as generic as possible

pascal-roth · 2025-10-21T23:28:17Z

source/isaaclab/isaaclab/assets/articulation/multirotor.py

+        if env_ids is None:
+            env_ids = torch.arange(self.num_instances, device=self.device)
+        else:
+            env_ids = torch.tensor(env_ids, device=self.device)


Careful, enc ids are often a tensor already

addressed in a717121

pascal-roth · 2025-10-21T23:29:10Z

source/isaaclab/isaaclab/assets/articulation/multirotor.py

+
+        # reset multirotor-specific data
+        if env_ids is None:
+            env_ids = torch.arange(self.num_instances, device=self.device)


Should generate an attr ALL_INDICIES to avoid reallocating memory here often

addressed in a717121

source/isaaclab/isaaclab/assets/articulation/multirotor_cfg.py

pascal-roth · 2025-10-21T23:35:08Z

source/isaaclab/isaaclab/utils/math.py

+
+@torch.jit.script
+def rand_range(lower, upper):
+    # type: (torch.Tensor, torch.Tensor) -> torch.Tensor


Type annotation in the function call or why is it defined as comment here?

function removed, switched to the isaac lab math_utils.sample_uniform
b6d30f0

pascal-roth · 2025-10-21T23:37:23Z

source/isaaclab_tasks/isaaclab_tasks/manager_based/drone_ntnu/LMF2_model/lmf2.zip

We should not add a zip file to the git. Let's find a differ location if the data is crucial

Co-authored-by: Pascal Roth <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Grzegorz Malczyk <[email protected]>

ooctipus

made some high level pass through,

Thanks for working on this PR! my high level comment so far would be try to use more IsaacLab predefined mdp if you find it has large overlap with custom mdp.

ooctipus · 2025-10-23T00:56:28Z

...ce/isaaclab_tasks/isaaclab_tasks/manager_based/drone_ntnu/mdp/commands/drone_pose_command.py

+    from .commands_cfg import DroneUniformPoseCommandCfg
+
+
+class DroneUniformPoseCommand(CommandTerm):


Can we use the UniformPoseCommand directly from IsaacLab?

so this class does not change much from the original UniformPoseCommand, but it introduces changes that help to

visualize the goal coordinate frame in the current sub-terrain: lines 153 - 155

compute the position error in the current subterrain: line 103

These changes are especially required by drone navigation task.

ooctipus · 2025-10-23T00:57:31Z

source/isaaclab_tasks/isaaclab_tasks/manager_based/drone_ntnu/mdp/observations.py

+    # extract euler angles (in world frame)
+    roll, pitch, _ = math_utils.euler_xyz_from_quat(asset.data.root_quat_w)
+    # normalize angle to [-pi, pi]
+    roll = torch.atan2(torch.sin(roll), torch.cos(roll))


I think we have warp_to_pi from math_utils

yes, I didn't notice it, since the humanoid example uses also such implementation,
comment addressed in 476798d

ooctipus · 2025-10-23T00:59:27Z

source/isaaclab_tasks/isaaclab_tasks/manager_based/drone_ntnu/mdp/rewards.py

+"""
+Drone-navigation rewards.
+"""
+


It is ok to define custom reward here , though I will highly suggest if you can find some predefined IsaacLab reward mdp.

For example, flat_orientation_l2 could be an good alternative to upright_posture_reward, have a read to source/isaaclab/isaaclab/envs/mdp/rewards.py

yes, you're right. Some modifications addressed in 9d59216. For the velocity (linear and angular) terms, the predefined IsaacLab reward mdp does not have terms for XYZ velocities together so I added these functions (following similar naming convention) in our custom reward in 9d59216

ooctipus and others added 30 commits August 26, 2025 18:14

add drone

01693ee

training run

957bd52

somewhat worked

20b7fe6

update aggregate_inertia_about_robot_com calculation

0fba4bf

clean up

9da4380

pass precommit

042d2fc

add ntnu liscence

54d67af

resolve pre-commit complaint

9c38a67

update robot link to nvidia link

a0fc071

clean up

7f7e67f

refactored thruster

5ea906d

clean up

80a49d4

add some docs

544bf3d

update naming for euler_angle_rates_w

36f7583

pass precommit

3740128

added more docs

10ea9b6

rename controller

33c323c

cleaned up controller

dc31f3e

cleaned thruster more

456b481

mad naming consistent

550a9ee

resolve naming conventions

a5d6c59

add drone usd

6d7e6a9

pass precommit

8229e1e

motor control in direct and terrain importer in manager based working

dc95b61

wip navigation in manager-based workflow: new articulation class with…

bf36429

… thrusters, new thruster actor class

naming cleanup

a07bf2e

make test case with floating obstacle and Anymal

f656a02

manager based flow not crashing, added depth camera, robot in visuali…

50622c9

…sation not visible

added VAE and changed observations to get image latents instead of de…

f71fd00

…pth image

lee velocity controller wip

72216ce

grzemal added 5 commits October 18, 2025 16:30

add missing imports and remove unused imports and fix name mismatches

64177b3

all tests passed

3eacbd5

chore(ci): fix lint issues and add PR body

ac20dbb

chore(ci): fix lint issues and add PR body

b39285c

delete obsolete

9be0504

grzemal requested review from Mayankm96, jtigue-bdai, kellyguo11, ooctipus and pascal-roth as code owners October 18, 2025 15:04

github-actions bot added documentation Improvements or additions to documentation enhancement New feature or request asset New asset feature or request labels Oct 18, 2025

grzemal added 2 commits October 19, 2025 14:28

add names

191a4b9

update with mesh and recent usd

11cca2b

Mayankm96 added this to Isaac Lab Oct 20, 2025

Mayankm96 moved this to Ready in Isaac Lab Oct 20, 2025

Zwoelf12 and others added 2 commits October 20, 2025 16:58

fixed velocity reward issue

d6a82ba

fix typo

b17c7c2

pascal-roth reviewed Oct 21, 2025

View reviewed changes

grzemal and others added 5 commits October 22, 2025 12:41

remove fix dt from thruster

cdb9380

Update source/isaaclab/isaaclab/actuators/thruster.py

f0dc677

Co-authored-by: Pascal Roth <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Grzegorz Malczyk <[email protected]>

Update source/isaaclab/isaaclab/assets/articulation/multirotor_cfg.py

d9348b1

Co-authored-by: Pascal Roth <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Grzegorz Malczyk <[email protected]>

docs(thruster): add missing __init__ arg descriptions

b0f90d6

cache _ALL_INDICES to avoid reallocations

a717121

ooctipus reviewed Oct 23, 2025

View reviewed changes

grzemal added 4 commits October 23, 2025 11:19

use wrap_to_pi

476798d

clean up the rewards and observations for the state based control task

9d59216

use default sampling function and remove obsolete

b6d30f0

remove obsolete

3292b8d

		# stiffness = 0.1 # only necessary to make this conform with Isaac
		# damping = 0.1 # only necessary to make this conform with Isaac

		num_motors: int = 4
		"""Number of motors/propulsors on the vehicle."""

		thrust_const_range: tuple[float, float] = (9.26312e-06, 1.826312e-05)
		"""Range for thrust coefficient :math:`k_f` when ``use_rps=True`` [N/(rps²)]."""

		from .commands_cfg import DroneUniformPoseCommandCfg


		class DroneUniformPoseCommand(CommandTerm):

Add multirotor/thruster actuator, multirotor asset and manager-based LMF2 drone task #3760

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Add multirotor/thruster actuator, multirotor asset and manager-based LMF2 drone task #3760

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Description

Motivation and context

Type of change

Files changed (high-level summary)

Dependencies

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