AIC Newton

A standalone Newton simulation of the AI for Industry Challenge workcell. The AI for Industry Challenge is an open competition for developers and roboticists working on high-impact robotics and manufacturing problems; its task centers on robotic cable manipulation and insertion. For the complete workflow, rules, interfaces, scene description, and submission guidance, see the Intrinsic AIC repository.

The default scene represents a deterministic AIC Phase 1 setup. Five complete SFP-to-SC cable assemblies start docked on the task board alongside five NIC cards and five SC ports. The selected cable is simulated dynamically and can be manipulated manually or with the automatic extraction and insertion task.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• OS: Linux (x86-64, aarch64), Windows (x86-64), or macOS (CPU only)
• GPU: NVIDIA GPU (Maxwell or newer), driver 545 or newer (CUDA 12). No local CUDA Toolkit installation required. macOS runs on CPU.

For detailed system requirements, see the installation guide. For tested configurations and Newton's versioning and deprecation policies, see the compatibility guide.

Quickstart

Create the locked environment and install all dependencies:

uv sync

Run the automatic extraction and insertion sequence with sensor-camera views:

uv run aic --auto --camera

Launch the interactive OpenGL viewer in keyboard-controlled TCP mode:

uv run aic

Options

Argument	Default	Description
--auto	off	Run the automatic cable extraction and insertion sequence
--camera	off	Open the three sensor-camera images
--cable-index INDEX	0	Select the zero-based cable assembly
--nic-card-index INDEX	0	Select the zero-based destination NIC card
--nic-port-index INDEX	0	Select the zero-based SFP port on the destination NIC card

Keyboard Controls

Click the viewer before using the controls. Translation commands operate in the world frame; rotation commands operate in the local TCP frame.

Keys	Action
I / K	Move the TCP along positive / negative world X
J / L	Move the TCP along positive / negative world Y
U / O	Move the TCP along positive / negative world Z
Shift + movement key	Rotate about the corresponding local TCP axis
R	Reset the complete scene and restart automatic mode when enabled

Configuration

Editable typed defaults live in src/aic_newton/config/:

File	Parameters
camera.py	Sensor resolution, update rate, optics, and image-panel layout
cable.py	Cable geometry, material, contacts, constraints, and discretization
control.py	Robot gains and home pose, manual TCP speeds, grasp offsets, tolerances, and automatic motion profiles
scene.py	Task-board layout and connector fixture poses
task.py	Zero-based cable, NIC card, and NIC port target indices
simulation.py	Frame timing, contact capacities, and MuJoCo/VBD coupling settings
viewer.py	Initial view, navigation speed, and scene lighting

License

The project code is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. Content derived from the Intrinsic AIC project retains its upstream Apache License 2.0 terms and source attribution.