> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.stereolabs.com/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.stereolabs.com/_mcp/server.

# ZED Isaac™ Sim Extension Overview

**Build, test, and train your physical AI before the hardware even exists.**

The ZED Camera extension brings faithful digital twins of every ZED camera into NVIDIA® Isaac™ Sim's photorealistic simulation. Your simulated ZED streams data to the ZED SDK exactly like a real camera would, so the exact software you ship (perception, navigation, your ROS 2 stack) runs **unchanged** against the simulator. Iterate on your robot in a fully repeatable virtual world, then deploy to the field with confidence.

![image](/_fern-img/11a3367ec120adc37a6197454d7d8f9ffe0c401775a59269ffe45d2d1bb4f76a.webp)

**What you get:**

* ✅ Every ZED camera as a calibrated **digital twin**: stereo and mono models, with their lens variants
* ✅ Stereo images + IMU streamed to the **ZED SDK** and **ZED ROS 2 Wrapper**, with **zero code change**
* ✅ **Ground-truth depth** streaming, straight into your ZED SDK pipeline
* ✅ **ZED Sim2Real**, a realistic camera model that adds real-world imaging on top of the clean render *(experimental)*
* ✅ ZED observations as **GPU tensors** in Isaac™ Lab, for reinforcement & imitation learning
* ✅ **SDK-free** RGB + depth capture for quick synthetic datasets
* ✅ **Multi-camera streaming**: several cameras on one robot or a whole fleet in one scene, stereo and mono mixed, all streaming simultaneously
* ✅ Low-latency **IPC** streaming and virtual stereo pairs

## Why simulate your ZED?

#### [Software-in-the-loop testing](/docs/integrations/isaac-sim/setting-up-the-zed-in-isaac-sim)

The full ZED SDK / ROS 2 pipeline runs unchanged against the simulated camera: no code modification, no hardware. Develop, debug, and validate your application in a perfectly repeatable environment, at scale.

#### [Faithful ZED digital twins](/docs/integrations/isaac-sim/setting-up-the-zed-in-isaac-sim#add-a-camera-to-the-scene)

USD models of the entire ZED lineup, stereo and mono, with real intrinsics, stereo baselines, and lens variants. What you simulate is what you ship.

#### [Realistic imaging with ZED Sim2Real](/docs/integrations/isaac-sim/setting-up-the-zed-in-isaac-sim#zed-sim2real-camera-model-experimental)

A calibrated camera model reproduces the real ZED's lens blur, auto-exposure, color response, and sensor noise on top of the clean render, closing the sim-to-real gap for your perception stack. *Experimental.*

#### [Train physical AI in Isaac™ Lab](/docs/integrations/isaac-sim/using-the-zed-in-isaac-lab)

Read ZED observations as GPU tensors for reinforcement learning, imitation learning, and synthetic data generation, with ready-to-run examples: walking quadruped, Franka lift, HDF5 demonstration recording.

![ZED Sim2Real comparison](/_fern-img/9eb273f7c5265e09c3f4b90ef2767b2c9e8e41ef04ffc08a6e6c7d63b3392744.webp)

*Left: real ZED X. Middle: raw Isaac™ Sim render. Right: the same render with the ZED Sim2Real model applied.*

## Choosing a data path

Whatever your workflow (sim-to-real validation, robot learning, or dataset generation), there is a data path for it:

#### [Stream to the ZED SDK](/docs/integrations/isaac-sim/setting-up-the-zed-in-isaac-sim)

The simulated camera streams to the ZED SDK or the ZED ROS 2 Wrapper exactly as a real camera would. The path for software-in-the-loop validation of your full pipeline.

#### [Isaac™ Lab tensors](/docs/integrations/isaac-sim/using-the-zed-in-isaac-lab)

Stereo RGB and depth as in-process GPU tensors, with no SDK and no network. The path for reinforcement and imitation learning.

#### [SDK-free depth capture](/docs/integrations/isaac-sim/sdk-free-depth-capture)

Capture RGB + ground-truth depth straight from the renderer to disk. The path for quick captures and synthetic datasets.

> **Note**
>
> Only the **streaming** path involves the ZED SDK and its stereo-matched depth; the other two deliver Isaac™ Sim's ground-truth renderer depth.

## Get started

Get your first simulated ZED streaming in a few steps: install Isaac™ Sim, the ZED SDK, and the ZED Camera extension, then drop a ZED into your scene and press Play.

#### [Get Started with Isaac™ Sim](/docs/integrations/isaac-sim/get-started-with-isaac-sim)

Install Isaac™ Sim, the ZED SDK, and the ZED Camera extension.

#### [Set up your first simulated ZED](/docs/integrations/isaac-sim/setting-up-the-zed-in-isaac-sim)

Add a ZED camera to your scene and stream it to the ZED SDK.

#### [ROS 2 integration](/docs/integrations/isaac-sim/using-the-zed-with-ros-2-in-isaac-sim)

Simulate robots and feed the ZED ROS 2 Wrapper with simulated data for smart navigation and beyond.

#### [Extension on GitHub](https://github.com/stereolabs/zed-isaac-sim)

Browse the source, examples, and releases of the ZED Camera extension on the official StereoLabs repository.

> **Note**
>
> This is documentation for the **ZED Camera extension >= 5.0.0**, which targets **NVIDIA® Isaac™ Sim 6.0 (Kit 110.1.2)**. Extension `4.x` targets Isaac™ Sim 5.0, `3.x` targets 4.5, and `2.x` targets 4.0; see the [compatibility table](https://github.com/stereolabs/zed-isaac-sim/blob/main/exts/sl.sensor.camera/docs/README.md#compatibility).
>
> You can find the documentation for older versions [here](/docs/integrations/isaac-sim/old-version-of-the-zed-extension-for-isaac-sim).