Nova Carter

Powered by the Nova Orin™ sensor and compute architecture, Nova Carter is a complete robotics development platform that accelerates the development and deployment of next-generation Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs).

Nova Carter is being used as a reference platform for both Isaac AMR and Isaac ROS software, enabling real-world and simulation-based development. Nova Carter robots may be purchased from Segway Robotics.

The robot features the full Nova Orin sensor set, including four Leopard Imaging Hawk stereo cameras, four Leopard Imaging Owl fisheye cameras, IMUs, two 2D RPLidars, and one XT-32 3D Lidar. The robot digital twins with the cameras, Lidars, and IMU sensors are simulated in Omniverse Isaac Sim and connected to ROS1 and ROS2 bridges for different robotics applications.

Assets

Nova Carter

The Nova Carter assets can be found on nucleus after Omniverse Isaac Sim is installed, the Nova Carter assets are in the /Isaac/Robots/Carter/ folder, the ROS and ROS2 assets are in the /Isaac/Samples folder, and the sample environments are in the /Isaac/Sampls/ROS2/Scenarios/ folder.

Nova Carter

Nova Carter

  • /Isaac/Robots/Carter/nova_carter.usd, the Nova Carter robot with no sensors attached.

  • /Isaac/Robots/Carter/nova_carter_sensors.usd, the Nova Carter robot with sensors attached.

  • /Isaac/Samples/ROS2/Robots/Nova_Carter_ROS.usd, the Nova Carter robot with sensors attached and ROS2 action graph enabled. This asset has been tested and verified before release.

Frames and Topic names
Nova Carter Frame Names and Topic Names

Device Name

Frame ID

Topic name

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera_left_optical

front_stereo_camera/left/image_raw front_stereo_camera/left/camera_info

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera_right_optical

front_stereo_camera/right/image_raw front_stereo_camera/right/camera_info

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera_imu

/front_stereo_imu/imu

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera_left

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera_right

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera

Back Hawk

back_stereo_camera_left_optical

back_stereo_camera/left/image_raw back_stereo_camera/left/camera_info

Back Hawk

back_stereo_camera_right_optical

back_stereo_camera/right/image_raw back_stereo_camera/right/camera_info

Back Hawk

back_stereo_camera_imu

back_stereo_imu/imu

Back Hawk

back_stereo_camera_left

Back Hawk

back_stereo_camera_right

Back Hawk

back_stereo_camera

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera_left_optical

left_stereo_camera/left/image_raw left_stereo_camera/left/camera_info

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera_right_optical

left_stereo_camera/right/image_raw left_stereo_camera/right/camera_info

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera_imu

left_stereo_imu/imu

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera_left

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera_right

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera_left_optical

right_stereo_camera/left/image_raw right_stereo_camera/left/camera_info

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera_right_optical

right_stereo_camera/right/image_raw right_stereo_camera/right/camera_info

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera_imu

right_stereo_imu/imu

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera_left

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera_right

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera

Front RP lidar

front_2d_lidar

front_2d_lidar/scan

Back RP lidar

back_2d_lidar

back_2d_lidar/scan

XT 32

front_3d_lidar

front_3d_lidar/lidar_points

Front owl

front_fisheye_camera_optical

front_fisheye_camera/left/image_raw front_fisheye_camera/left/camera_info

Front owl

front_fisheye_camera

Back owl

back_fisheye_camera_optical

back_fisheye_camera/left/image_raw back_fisheye_camera/left/camera_info

Back owl

back_fisheye_camera

Left owl

left_fisheye_camera_optical

left_fisheye_camera/left/image_raw left_fisheye_camera/left/camera_info

Left owl

left_fisheye_camera

Right owl

right_fisheye_camera_optical

right_fisheye_camera/left/image_raw right_fisheye_camera/left/camera_info

Right owl

right_fisheye_camera

Chassis IMU

chassis_imu

/chassis/imu

Odometry

/chassis/odom

TF

/tf

Nova Dev Kit

The Nova Dev Kit is a development platform consist of 3 hawk stereo cameras and 3 owl fisheye cameras.

Nova Dev Kit

Nova Dev Kit

  • /Isaac/Robots/Carter/nova_dev_kit_sensors.usd, the Nova Dev Kit with sensors attached.

  • /Isaac/Samples/ROS2/Robots/Nova_Dev_Kit_ROS.usd, the Nova Dev Kit with sensors attached and ROS2 action graph enabled.

  • /Isaac/Samples/ROS2/Robots/Nova_Dev_Kit_On_Robot_ROS.usd, the Nova Dev Kit ROS model attached to a Nova Carter base. This asset has been tested and verified before release.

Frames and Topic names
Nova Dev Kit Frame Names and Topic Names

Device Name

Frame ID

Topic name

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera_left_optical

front_stereo_camera/left/image_raw front_stereo_camera/left/camera_info

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera_right_optical

front_stereo_camera/right/image_raw front_stereo_camera/right/camera_info

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera_imu

/front_stereo_imu/imu

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera_left

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera_right

Front Hawk

front_stereo_camera

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera_left_optical

left_stereo_camera/left/image_raw left_stereo_camera/left/camera_info

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera_right_optical

left_stereo_camera/right/image_raw left_stereo_camera/right/camera_info

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera_imu

left_stereo_imu/imu

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera_left

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera_right

Left Hawk

left_stereo_camera

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera_left_optical

right_stereo_camera/left/image_raw right_stereo_camera/left/camera_info

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera_right_optical

right_stereo_camera/right/image_raw right_stereo_camera/right/camera_info

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera_imu

right_stereo_imu/imu

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera_left

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera_right

Right Hawk

right_stereo_camera

Front owl

front_fisheye_camera_optical

front_fisheye_camera/left/image_raw front_fisheye_camera/left/camera_info

Front owl

front_fisheye_camera

Left owl

left_fisheye_camera_optical

left_fisheye_camera/left/image_raw left_fisheye_camera/left/camera_info

Left owl

left_fisheye_camera

Right owl

right_fisheye_camera_optical

right_fisheye_camera/left/image_raw right_fisheye_camera/left/camera_info

Right owl

right_fisheye_camera

Odometry

/chassis/odom

TF

/tf

Sensors

Hawk Stereo Camera

The Hawk stereo camera features two RGB camera sensors and a 6 axis IMU, and it is located at Isaac/Sensors/LeopardImaging/Hawk/hawk_v1.1_nominal.usd The detailed specs can be found here.

Note: The front hawk is enabled by default for Nova_Carter_ROS.usd, additional hawk cameras can be enabled as needed, with increase load on computation.
  • To enable to other hawk sensors, go to Window > Visual Scripting > ActionGraph

  • Click Edit Action Graph and select the action graph for the sensor to enable. (For example, /nova_carter_ros2_sensors/back_hawk)

  • Select the Isaac Create Render Product Node for the camera (there is one for the left camera, and one for the right camera), click enabled

../_images/landing_page_carter_enable_sensor.gif

RPLidar

RP Lidar is a RTX based 2D lidar, that can be enabled by default and can be created by clicking Create > Isaac > Sensors > RTX Lidar > SLAMTEC > RPLIDAR S2E

Note

The RP Lidars are disabled by default, to enable them, follow the dropdown above and check enabled

XT-32

XT-32 is a RTX based 3D lidar, that can be enabled by default and can be created by clicking Create > Isaac > Sensors > RTX Lidar > HESAI > PandarXT-32 10hz

Note

The XT-32 are enabled by default, to disable it, follow the dropdown above and uncheck enabled

Getting Started

Omniverse Isaac Sim has provided several ROS2 samples with the Nova Carter robot for control and navigation.

ROS 2 Sample Scene

The sample scene can be loaded after enabling the ROS2 Bridge Extension by clicking Isaac Examples > ROS2 > Isaac ROS > Sample Scene.

This scene showcases a Nova Carter inside a small warehosue, with all Lidars and front hawk camera running from the robot frame. Please follow Multiple Sensors in RViz2 section for visualizing the sensors and install teleop-twist-keyboard by following the Driving Turtlebot Tutorial.

ROS 2 Navigation Scene

The navigation scene can be loaded after enabling the ROS2 Bridge Extension by clicking Isaac Examples > ROS2 > Navigation > Carter Navigation.

Please follow ROS2 Navigation tutorial for usage.

Other Resources