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IContactSensor#

Fully qualified name: isaacsim::sensors::experimental::physics::IContactSensor

struct IContactSensor#

Carbonite interface for managing C++ contact sensors.

Processes raw PhysX contact reports to produce filtered sensor readings. Supports configurable radius filtering and force thresholds.

The plugin is self-driving: it subscribes to PhysX simulation events (eResumed / eStopped) and physics step events internally, so it initializes, discovers sensors, and processes each substep without any Python relay.

Lifecycle:

  1. acquire via carb::getCachedInterface or pybind11 acquire function

  2. createSensor() for each IsaacContactSensor prim (plugin self-initializes on eResumed)

  3. getSensorReading() to read data (sensors update automatically each substep)

  4. getRawContacts() to read raw contact data for a sensor

  5. shutdown() on extension unload

Public Functions

virtual void shutdown() = 0#

Shut down the manager, destroying all sensors and freeing resources.

virtual bool createSensor(const char *primPath) = 0#

Create a contact sensor for the given IsaacContactSensor prim.

Finds the parent rigid body by walking up the prim hierarchy. If a sensor already exists for this prim path the call succeeds without creating a duplicate.

Note

Side effect: This method modifies the USD stage by applying PhysxSchemaPhysxContactReportAPI on the parent rigid body (with threshold=0 and sleepThreshold=0). This is required for PhysX getFullContactReport() to return contact data for this body.

Parameters:

primPath – USD path to the IsaacContactSensor prim.

Returns:

true on success (sensor created or already exists), false on failure.

virtual void removeSensor(const char *primPath) = 0#

Remove a sensor and free its resources.

Parameters:

primPath – USD path used when the sensor was created.

virtual ContactSensorReading getSensorReading(const char *primPath) = 0#

Get the latest reading for a sensor.

Parameters:

primPath – USD path used when the sensor was created.

Returns:

Sensor reading. isValid is false if sensor is disabled or not found.

virtual void getRawContacts(
const char *primPath,
const ContactRawData **outData,
int32_t *outCount,
) = 0#

Get raw contact data for a sensor’s parent body.

Parameters:

  • primPath – USD path used when the sensor was created.

  • outData – Pointer to receive the raw contact data array.

  • outCount – Pointer to receive the number of raw contact entries.