Environment Setup

July 3, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

This guide is the release-facing setup index for HumanoidArena.

1. System Requirements

Recommended platform:

  • Ubuntu 22.04 or newer.
  • NVIDIA GPU and driver compatible with Isaac Sim 5.0 and CUDA 12.x.
  • Miniconda or Anaconda.
  • Git LFS.
  • Network access to GitHub and Hugging Face.
  • HumanoidArena asset package restored under isaaclab_twist2_g1/assets with objects/ and robots/ present.

The current simulation stack targets Isaac Sim 5.0.0 and Isaac Lab release/2.2.0.

2. Conda Environments

HumanoidArena uses two environments because Isaac Lab and LeRobot have different Python dependency constraints.

EnvironmentPythonUse
unitree_sim_env3.11Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, teleoperation, replay, rerecord, evaluation workers
lerobot3.12+LeRobot training and VLA policy serving

3. Optional Dry Run Installer

The setup helper prints the installation commands without changing the machine when run in dry-run mode:

bash isaaclab_twist2_g1/tools/setup_humanoidarena_envs.sh --dry-run

Execute only after reviewing the generated commands:

CONDA_BASE=/path/to/miniconda3 \
bash isaaclab_twist2_g1/tools/setup_humanoidarena_envs.sh --execute

4. Install Simulation Environment

Create and activate the environment:

conda create -n unitree_sim_env python=3.11
conda activate unitree_sim_env
python -m pip install --upgrade pip

Install the PyTorch stack compatible with Isaac Lab release 2.2.0:

pip install torch==2.7.0 torchvision==0.22.0 torchaudio==2.7.0 \
  --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu128

Install Isaac Sim 5.0.0:

pip install "isaacsim[all,extscache]==5.0.0" --extra-index-url https://pypi.nvidia.com
isaacsim

Install Isaac Lab:

git clone git@github.com:isaac-sim/IsaacLab.git
cd IsaacLab
git checkout release/2.2.0
sudo apt install cmake build-essential cyclonedds-dev
./isaaclab.sh --install

Install project dependencies:

cd /path/to/HumanoidArena
pip install -r isaaclab_twist2_g1/requirements.txt

5. Download Simulation Assets

Download the release asset package from Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TCa_aVRmFrZs_l4wlxkqanNebvDtChNk/view?usp=sharing

The recommended release zip layout has objects/ and robots/ at the archive root. Restore it into the Isaac Lab asset directory:

cd /path/to/HumanoidArena/isaaclab_twist2_g1
mkdir -p assets
unzip /path/to/humanoidarena_assets_isaaclab_twist2_g1_<date>.zip -d assets

After extraction, verify the expected runtime paths:

test -d /path/to/HumanoidArena/isaaclab_twist2_g1/assets/objects
test -d /path/to/HumanoidArena/isaaclab_twist2_g1/assets/robots

If the downloaded archive already contains a top-level assets/ directory, unzip it from /path/to/HumanoidArena/isaaclab_twist2_g1 instead so the final paths still resolve to isaaclab_twist2_g1/assets/objects and isaaclab_twist2_g1/assets/robots.

6. SONIC Policy Artifacts

SONIC uses release artifacts from Hugging Face:

cd /path/to/HumanoidArena
mkdir -p GR00T-WholeBodyControl/gear_sonic_deploy/policy/release
hf download nvidia/GEAR-SONIC \
  model_encoder.onnx model_decoder.onnx observation_config.yaml \
  --local-dir GR00T-WholeBodyControl/gear_sonic_deploy/policy/release

Maintained scripts resolve this directory through SONIC_POLICY_ROOT, defaulting to:

/path/to/HumanoidArena/GR00T-WholeBodyControl/gear_sonic_deploy/policy/release

7. Install LeRobot Environment

conda create -n lerobot python=3.12
conda activate lerobot
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
cd /path/to/HumanoidArena/lerobot
pip install -e ".[pi]"

For base ACT/Diffusion work, the base editable install may be enough:

pip install -e .

8. Smoke Tests

Simulation import:

OMNI_KIT_ACCEPT_EULA=YES python -c "import isaacsim; print('isaacsim import ok')"

LeRobot import:

cd /path/to/HumanoidArena/lerobot
PYTHONPATH=src python - <<'PY'
import torch
import torchvision
import lerobot
print("lerobot imports ok")
PY

TWIST2 checkpoint presence:

ls TWIST2/assets/ckpts/twist2_1017_20k.onnx \
   TWIST2/assets/ckpts/twist2_1017_25k.onnx

9. Next Steps

After setup, continue with: