RoboFin3D: A Sim-to-Real Platform for Robotic Surface Finishing

Abstract:Grinding and sanding are fundamental processes in industrial robotic surface finishing. However, physical trials are expensive and consume workpieces, making reproducible experiments difficult. We present RoboFin3D, a sim-to-real platform built on Isaac Sim and the Newton physics engine, that provides physics-based grinding and sanding simulation for cheap and repeatable robotic surface finishing experiments. RoboFin3D utilizes a signed distance field (SDF) to model the changing geometry of the workpiece, enabling contact computation, live updates and rendering without an intermediate mesh. It additionally uses a separate surface field to model progressive surface appearance change during sanding. We also introduce WeldGen, a weld sampling module, to generate weld beads on 8,918 real-world workpiece meshes for providing diverse simulation assets. The simulation parameters are calibrated on real experimental results and our evaluation demonstrates our simulation's fidelity against the real world. We also demonstrate that simulation-generated data can be used to improve the performance of perception models. Simulation-only fine-tuning of SAM2 improves IoU for segmentation of unsanded regions from 77.15% to 84.47%, while combined synthetic and real training reaches 97.41%.

Robotics (cs.RO)

arXiv:2609.37560 [cs.RO]

(or arXiv:2609.37560v1 [cs.RO] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.37560 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.