Enhanced Offline Mode

.gitignore

@@ -73,3 +73,6 @@ tests/
 # TacSL sensor
 **/tactile_record/*
 **/gelsight_r15_data/*
+
+# Downloaded assets
+offline_assets/*

CONTRIBUTORS.md

@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ Guidelines for modifications:
 * Cathy Y. Li
 * Cheng-Rong Lai
 * Chenyu Yang
+* Clayton Littlejohn
 * Connor Smith
 * CY (Chien-Ying) Chen
 * David Yang

scripts/offline_setup/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,145 @@
+# Isaac Lab Offline Training Setup
+> Complete guide for training Isaac Lab environments offline using locally downloaded assets.
+
+## 🎯 Overview
+#### The offline training system enables you to train Isaac Lab environments without internet connectivity by using locally downloaded assets. This system:
+- ✅ Works with any robot - No hardcoded paths needed
+- ✅ Single flag - Add `--offline` to your training, tutorial, and demo commands
+- ✅ Fallback flag - Add `--offline-permissive` to your commands to fallback to Nucleus for asset not found in `offline_assets`
+- ✅ Maintains structure - Mirrors Nucleus directory organization locally
+
+## 📦 Requirements
+- Isaac Lab installed and working
+- Isaac Sim 5.0 or later
+- 2-60 GB free disk space (depending on assets downloaded)
+- Internet connection for initial asset download
+
+## 🚀 Quick Start
+### 1. Download essential assets (one-time, `all` ~60 GB)
+#### Assets download to the `~/IsaacLab/offline_assets` directory: `cd ~/IsaacLab`
+```
+./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/offline_setup/download_assets.py \
+    --categories all
+```
+#### _Alternative Note: Category fields can be specified separately_
+```
+./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/offline_setup/download_assets.py \
+    --categories Robots --subset Unitree
+```
+
+### Successful Downloads
+```
+======================================================================
+📊 Downloaded Assets Summary
+======================================================================
+Location: ~/IsaacLab/offline_assets
+
+✓ Environments           34,437 files       17.0 GB
+✓ IsaacLab                4,197 files        9.3 GB
+✓ Materials               1,918 files      537.0 MB
+✓ People                  3,085 files        9.4 GB
+✓ Props                   2,507 files        4.2 GB
+✓ Robots                  4,687 files        5.3 GB
+✓ Samples                 6,601 files       10.4 GB
+✓ Sensors                   772 files      256.7 MB
+======================================================================
+TOTAL                  58,204 files       56.3 GB
+======================================================================
+
+✅ Complete! Use --offline flag with Isaac Lab commands.
+
+Offline mirror: ~/IsaacLab/offline_assets
+```
+
+### 2. Train completely offline with any robot via the `--offline` flag (also works with `/play`)
+#### Supported for: `rl_games`, `rsl_rl`, `sb3`, `skrl`, and `sim2transfer`
+```
+./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/reinforcement_learning/rsl_rl/train.py \
+    --task Isaac-Velocity-Rough-Unitree-Go2-v0 \
+    --num_envs 64 \
+    --max_iterations 10 \
+    --offline
+
+./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/reinforcement_learning/skrl/train.py \
+    --task Isaac-Velocity-Flat-H1-v0 \
+    --num_envs 64 \
+    --max_iterations 10 \
+    --offline
+
+./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/reinforcement_learning/rsl_rl/play.py \
+    --task Isaac-Velocity-Flat-Unitree-Go2-v0 \
+    --num_envs 128 \
+    --checkpoint logs/rsl_rl/<robot>_flat/<timestamp>/model_<num>.pt \
+    --video \
+    --video_length 1000 \
+    --offline
+```
+#### Run various demos and tutorials with `--offline` flag
+
+```
+./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/demos/quadrupeds.py --offline
+
+./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/demos/arms.py --offline
+
+./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/tutorials/01_assets/run_articulation.py --offline
+```
+
+#### Strict mode (default) - fails immediately if asset not found locally
+```
+./isaaclab.sh -p train.py --task Go2 --offline
+```
+
+#### Permissive mode - warns and falls back to Nucleus if asset not found
+```
+./isaaclab.sh -p train.py --task Go2 --offline-permissive
+```
+
+#### Environment variables work too
+```
+OFFLINE=1 ./isaaclab.sh -p train.py --task Go2
+OFFLINE_PERMISSIVE=1 ./isaaclab.sh -p train.py --task Go2
+```
+
+### Missing Assets
+```
+======================================================================
+[OfflineAssetResolver] ✗ ASSET NOT FOUND (offline mode)
+======================================================================
+Missing:  IsaacLab/Robots/Unitree/Go2/go2.usd
+Expected: ~/IsaacLab/offline_assets/IsaacLab/Robots/Unitree/Go2/go2.usd
+
+To download this asset, run:
+  ./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/offline_setup/download_assets.py --categories IsaacLab/Robots
+```
+
+#### _Note: For offline training, assets that cannot be found in `offline_assets` will attempted to be fetched from the [Nucleus Server](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/nucleus/latest/index.html)_ when using the `--offline-permissive` flag.
+
+## 📁 Asset Layout
+#### Offline assets are organized to mirror Nucleus (`ISAAC_NUCLEUS_DIR` & `ISAACLAB_NUCLEUS_DIR`) under the `offline_assets` directory, meaning that no code changes are required for offline running! We flatten `Isaac/IsaacLab/` to just the category names (`Robots/`, `Controllers/`, etc.) for cleaner local structure. This happens in `asset_resolver.py`, where the resolver maintains a 1:1 mapping between Nucleus and local storage.
+
+```
+IsaacLab/
+├── source/isaaclab/isaaclab/utils/
+│   └── asset_resolver.py           # Core resolver
+├── scripts/setup/
+│   └── download_assets.py          # Asset downloader
+└── offline_assets/                 ← Mirror of Isaac/
+├── IsaacLab/
+│   ├── Robots/
+│   │   ├── ANYbotics/
+│   │   │   ├── ANYmal-B/
+│   │   │   ├── ANYmal-C/
+│   │   │   └── ANYmal-D/
+│   │   ├── Unitree/
+│   │   └── FrankaEmika/
+│   ├── ActuatorNets/
+│   ├── Controllers/
+│   └── Policies/
+├── Props/
+│   └── UIElements/
+├── Environments/
+│   └── Grid/
+├── Materials/
+│   └── Textures/
+└── Robots/                        ← Isaac Sim robots (different from IsaacLab/Robots)
+```