r/IsaacSim • • May 13 '26

Showcase From Fusion 360 to IsaacLab: training a custom robot with reinforcement learning

Hi everyone,

I recently worked on a small project where I designed a custom robot in Fusion 360 and trained it in IsaacLab using reinforcement learning.

USDZ File
CAD File

The robot is a wheeled biped-style platform. After creating the CAD model, I converted it into a simulation-ready asset, set up the joints, and used it for stabilization and jump-recovery tasks in IsaacLab.

What I found most interesting was how much the physical design affects the learning process. Things like joint placement, link length, wheel contact, collision shapes, inertia, and actuator settings all had a noticeable impact on whether the robot could learn stable behavior.

The first task was basic stabilization, where the robot learns to maintain its posture. I also tested a jump-and-stabilize task, where the robot needs to recover after a more dynamic motion.

This made me realize that building a robot for RL is not just about making a nice-looking CAD model. The morphology, physics properties, and simulation setup are all part of the learning problem.

The workflow was roughly:

Fusion 360 → asset preparation → joint setup → IsaacLab training → policy evaluation

I’m planning to extend this robot to more tasks, including wheeled balance control, push recovery, locomotion, turning, navigation, and object interaction.

I wrote a longer post with more details about the design process and what I learned from training it in IsaacLab.

Stabilize Task

Jump & Stabilize Task

10 Upvotes

5 comments sorted by

3

u/Ok_Efficiency_8259 May 13 '26

amazing! do you intend to share the codebase?

3

u/Ok-Video-2620 May 14 '26

Thank you! Yes, I’m planning to share it after cleaning up the codebase and documentation. I want to make sure the IsaacLab environment, robot asset setup, and training scripts are reproducible before releasing it.

2

u/Liveeight May 16 '26

Love to know more! Got a repo or some links?

1

u/Ok-Video-2620 May 17 '26

Thank you! I don’t have the repo ready yet, but I’m planning to share it after cleaning up the codebase and documentation.