Local Installation

UW Lab installation is available for Windows and Linux. Since it is built on top of Isaac Sim, it is required to install Isaac Sim before installing UW Lab. This guide explains the recommended installation methods for both Isaac Sim and UW Lab.

Caution

We have dropped support for Isaac Sim versions 4.2.0 and below. We recommend using the latest Isaac Sim 5.1.0 release to benefit from the latest features and improvements.

For more information, please refer to the Isaac Sim release notes.

System Requirements

General Requirements

For detailed requirements, please see the Isaac Sim system requirements. The basic requirements are:

• OS: Ubuntu 22.04 (Linux x64) or Windows 11 (x64)

• RAM: 32 GB or more

• GPU VRAM: 16 GB or more (additional VRAM may be required for rendering workflows)

Isaac Sim is built against a specific Python version, making it essential to use the same Python version when installing UW Lab. The required Python version is as follows:

• For Isaac Sim 5.X, the required Python version is 3.11.

• For Isaac Sim 4.X, the required Python version is 3.10.

Driver Requirements

Drivers other than those recommended on Omniverse Technical Requirements may work but have not been validated against all Omniverse tests.

• Use the latest NVIDIA production branch driver.

• On Linux, version 580.65.06 or later is recommended, especially when upgrading to Ubuntu 22.04.5 with kernel 6.8.0-48-generic or newer.

• On Spark, version 580.95.05 is recommended.

• On Windows, version 580.88 is recommended.

• If you are using a new GPU or encounter driver issues, install the latest production branch driver from the Unix Driver Archive using the .run installer.

DGX Spark: details and limitations

The DGX spark is a standalone machine learning device with aarch64 architecture. As a consequence, some features of UW Lab are not currently supported on the DGX spark. The most noteworthy is that the architecture requires CUDA ≥ 13, and thus the cu13 build of PyTorch or newer. Other notable limitations with respect to UW Lab include…

1. SkillGen is not supported out of the box. This is because cuRobo builds native CUDA/C++ extensions that requires specific tooling and library versions which are not validated for use with DGX spark.

2. Extended reality teleoperation tools such as OpenXR is not supported. This is due to encoding performance limitations that have not yet been fully investigated.

3. SKRL training with JAX has not been explicitly validated or tested in UW Lab on the DGX Spark. JAX provides pre-built CUDA wheels only for Linux on x86_64, so on aarch64 systems (e.g., DGX Spark) it runs on CPU only by default. GPU support requires building JAX from source, which has not been validated in UW Lab.

4. Livestream and Hub Workstation Cache are not supported on the DGX spark.

Troubleshooting

Please refer to the Linux Troubleshooting to resolve installation issues in Linux.

You can use Isaac Sim Compatibility Checker to automatically check if the above requirements are met for running Isaac Sim on your system.

Quick Start (Recommended)

For most users, the simplest and fastest way to install UW Lab is by following the Installation using Isaac Sim Pip Package guide.

This method will install Isaac Sim via pip and UW Lab through its source code. If you are new to UW Lab, start here.

Choosing an Installation Method

Different workflows require different installation methods. Use this table to decide:

Method	Isaac Sim	UW Lab	Best For	Difficulty
Recommended	📦 pip install	💾 source (git)	Beginners, standard use	Easy
Binary + Source	📥 binary download	💾 source (git)	Users preferring binary install of Isaac Sim	Easy
Full Source Build	💾 source (git)	💾 source (git)	Developers modifying both	Advanced
Pip Only	📦 pip install	📦 pip install	External extensions only (no training/examples)	Special case
Docker	🐳 Docker	💾 source (git)	Docker users	Advanced

Next Steps

Once you’ve reviewed the installation methods, continue with the guide that matches your workflow:

• 😃 Installation using Isaac Sim Pip Package

  • Install Isaac Sim via pip and UW Lab from source.

  • Best for beginners and most users.

• Installation using Isaac Sim Pre-built Binaries

  • Install Isaac Sim from its binary package (website download).

  • Install UW Lab from its source code.

  • Choose this if you prefer not to use pip for Isaac Sim (for instance, on Ubuntu 20.04).

• Installation using Isaac Sim Source Code

  • Build Isaac Sim from source.

  • Install UW Lab from its source code.

  • Recommended only if you plan to modify Isaac Sim itself.

• Container Deployment

  • Install Isaac Sim and UW Lab in a Docker container.

  • Best for users who want to use UW Lab in a containerized environment.

Asset Caching

UW Lab assets are hosted on AWS S3 cloud storage. Loading times can vary depending on your network connection and geographical location, and in some cases, assets may take several minutes to load for each run. To improve performance or support offline workflows, we recommend enabling asset caching.

• Cached assets are stored locally, reducing repeated downloads.

• This is especially useful if you have a slow or intermittent internet connection, or if your deployment environment is offline.

Please follow the steps Asset Caching to enable asset caching and speed up your workflow.