Web-Based Visualizer for Simulation Environments

IsaacGym Simulator
SAPIEN Simulator
Static URDF File

This repository hosts a browser-based 3D viewer for physical simulators. It offers users the ability to observe simulations directly within their web browser, as an alternative to the default visualizer that comes with the simulator.

The main feature of this repo is that you only need to modify a server lines of your code to port the visualization on the default simulator viewer to the web visualizer. This feature is especially useful for visualizing simulation on a headless server. For example, train and visualize the IsaacGym tasks inside jupyter notebook on a remote server.

Installation

First install ZeroMQ libraries on your system:

apt install libzmq3-dev # For ubuntu
brew install zmq # For Mac

Note: this visualizer does not have a Python version requirement but IsaacGym requires Python 3.6, 3.7, or 3.8

git clone https://github.com/NVlabs/sim-web-visualizer
cd sim-web-visualizer && git submodule update --init --recursive
pip install -e .

Examples

IsaacGym Web Visualizer

Check the IsaacGym Example for information on running the Web Visualizer on IsaacGymEnvs.

SAPIEN Web Visualizer

Check the SAPIEN Example for information on running the Web Visualizer on ManiSkill2.

URDF Web Visualizer

Check the URDF Example for information to visualize a static URDF file on Web Visualizer.

Troubleshooting

Can "Upgrade" only to "WebSocket"

This issue may arise if you have entered an incorrect URL into your browser. Ensure that the URL is in the format http://YOUR_IP_ADDRESS:YOUR_PORT_NUM/static/. The /static/ part of the URL is essential and should not be omitted.

404: Not Found

Similar to the previous issue, the correct URL suffix should be /static/, and not /static. The trailing / is mandatory and should not be omitted.

Citing This Repo

This repository is a part of the AnyTeleop Project. If you use this work, kindly reference it as:

@inproceedings{qin2023anyteleop,
  title     = {AnyTeleop: A General Vision-Based Dexterous Robot Arm-Hand Teleoperation System},
  author    = {Qin, Yuzhe and Yang, Wei and Huang, Binghao and Van Wyk, Karl and Su, Hao and Wang, Xiaolong and Chao, Yu-Wei and Fox, Dieter},
  booktitle = {Robotics: Science and Systems},
  year      = {2023}
}

Acknowledgments

This repository is developed upon MeshCat. The URDF loader is adapted from yourdfpy. We extend our appreciation to the developers and custodians of these open sources projects.

License and Disclaimer

Web-Based Visualizer for Simulation Environments is released under the MIT License.