Demo: Closed-Loop Sionna-Isaac Sim Co-Simulation Framework for Wireless-Aware Robot Navigation over ROS 2

2026-10-06

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenge of real-time closed-loop coupling between physical simulation and channel modeling in wireless sensing-based robot navigation. We propose a ROS 2-based collaborative framework integrating Sionna and Isaac Sim, which natively unifies a physics engine with site-specific propagation models for the first time. This architecture enables GPU-accelerated ray-tracing feedback control and a complete perception-action-communication loop. By incorporating OpenStreetMap digital twins, the system achieves a channel refresh rate of 60 Hz. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method incurs only a 7.4% increase in travel time compared to the shortest path while completely eliminating communication outages. Consequently, this work provides an efficient and reliable real-time simulation benchmark for integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) navigation.

Abstract

A robot that offloads its control loop to the network carries the receiver with it, so link quality is decided by where it goes. Simulating this requires both a physics engine and a site-specific propagation model at once; to our knowledge no simulator natively unifies both, with existing couplings of the two limited to offline analyses. We demonstrate a real-time co-simulation framework coupling NVIDIA Isaac Sim and NVIDIA Sionna over ROS 2 that closes the perception-action-communication (PAC) loop between them. Sionna ray-traces the base-station-to-robot channel over the exact geometry Isaac Sim simulates on, rather than modeling it stochastically, and feeds channel states back into the control loop in real time. Ray-traced on GPU, the coverage map is refreshed in ~16ms (~60 Hz), fast enough for real-time control. To showcase the framework's utility, we implement a wireless-aware navigation application in an OpenStreetMap(OSM)-derived SUTD campus twin with two Nova Carter robots: the closed-loop planner eliminates communication outage at only +7.4% traversal time over the shortest-path baseline (which spends 7.9 s of its 81.2 s run disconnected).

Problem

• robot navigation
• wireless communication
• co-simulation
• closed-loop control
• ray tracing

Innovation

• Co-simulation
• Ray-tracing
• Closed-loop control
• Wireless-aware navigation
• ROS 2