[FEAT] Add OVPhysX support to Franka deformable lift tasks (#7077)

# Description

Adds `ovphysx` physics presets to the Franka soft-body and cloth lift
tasks, including their camera variants. The presets reuse the existing
PhysX deformable schemas and materials, enable scene replication for
OVPhysX, and leave the existing Isaac Sim PhysX and Newton presets
unchanged.

OVPhysX does not currently expose a runtime gravity setter, so its
preset disables the variable-gravity event and gravity curriculum and
trains at the configured fixed gravity. The Isaac Sim PhysX preset
retains the existing gravity curriculum.

Short RSL-RL smoke runs completed for 10 iterations with 16 environments
and seed 42. To account for the gravity limitation, OVPhysX was compared
with Isaac Sim PhysX using the same fixed gravity:

| Task | OVPhysX mean reward | Isaac Sim PhysX mean reward | OVPhysX
throughput | Isaac Sim PhysX throughput |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| Cloth lift | 3.90 | 4.08 | 259 steps/s | 324 steps/s |
| Soft lift | 1.97 | 2.03 | 296 steps/s | 339 steps/s |

All runs completed 3,840 steps without NaNs, out-of-bounds terminations,
or joint-velocity-limit terminations. These short runs validate
configuration and training stability, not converged training parity.

No new external dependencies are required.

## Type of change

- New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)

## Screenshots

Not applicable.

## Validation

- 10-iteration RSL-RL smoke runs for soft-body and cloth lift with
OVPhysX and fixed-gravity Isaac Sim PhysX
- Python syntax checks for the changed modules
- `uv run python tools/changelog/cli.py check develop`
- `uv run isaaclab -f`
- `git diff --check`

## Checklist

- [x] I have read and understood the [contribution
guidelines](https://isaac-sim.github.io/IsaacLab/main/source/refs/contributing.html)
- [x] I have run the [`pre-commit` checks](https://pre-commit.com/) with
`uv run isaaclab -f`
- [x] Documentation changes are not required for this preset-only change
- [x] My changes generate no new warnings
- [ ] I have added tests that prove my feature works
- [x] I have added a changelog fragment under
`source/<pkg>/changelog.d/` for every touched package
- [x] My name already exists in `CONTRIBUTORS.md`

---------

Co-authored-by: Kelly Guo <kellyg@nvidia.com>

Author: mmichelis

source/isaaclab_tasks/changelog.d/mmichelis-franka-deformable-ovphysx.minor.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Added
+^^^^^
+
+* Added OVPhysX presets for the Franka soft-body and cloth lift tasks, including their camera
+  variants.

source/isaaclab_tasks/isaaclab_tasks/core/lift/config/franka_soft/franka_cloth_env_cfg.py

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 )
 from isaaclab_newton.sim.schemas import NewtonDeformableBodyPropertiesCfg
 from isaaclab_newton.sim.spawners.materials import NewtonSurfaceDeformableBodyMaterialCfg
+from isaaclab_ov.physics import OvPhysxCfg
 from isaaclab_physx.physics import PhysxCfg
 from isaaclab_physx.sim.schemas import PhysxCollisionCfg, PhysxDeformableBodyPropertiesCfg
 from isaaclab_physx.sim.spawners.materials import PhysxSurfaceDeformableBodyMaterialCfg
@@ -100,8 +101,9 @@ class PhysicsCfg(PresetCfg):
     )
 
     isaacsim_physx: PhysxCfg = PhysxCfg(gpu_found_lost_pairs_capacity=2**22)
+    ovphysx: OvPhysxCfg = OvPhysxCfg(gpu_found_lost_pairs_capacity=2**22)
 
-    physx: PhysxAutoCfg = PhysxAutoCfg(isaacsim_physx=isaacsim_physx)
+    physx: PhysxAutoCfg = PhysxAutoCfg(isaacsim_physx=isaacsim_physx, ovphysx=ovphysx)
 
     default = newton_mjwarp_vbd_proxy
 
@@ -163,6 +165,7 @@ class DeformableCfg(PresetCfg):
         ),
     )
     isaacsim_physx = physx
+    ovphysx = physx
 
     default = newton_mjwarp_vbd_proxy
 
@@ -201,9 +204,10 @@ class FrankaClothScenePresetCfg(PresetCfg):
         num_envs=2048, env_spacing=2.0, replicate_physics=True
     )
 
-    # PhysX does not support replicating physics for deformable objects
+    # Isaac Sim PhysX does not support replicating physics for deformable objects
     physx: FrankaClothSceneCfg = FrankaClothSceneCfg(num_envs=2048, env_spacing=2.0, replicate_physics=False)
     isaacsim_physx = physx
+    ovphysx: FrankaClothSceneCfg = FrankaClothSceneCfg(num_envs=2048, env_spacing=2.0, replicate_physics=True)
 
     default = newton_mjwarp_vbd_proxy
 
@@ -224,6 +228,9 @@ class FrankaClothCameraScenePresetCfg(PresetCfg):
     )
     physx: FrankaClothCameraSceneCfg = FrankaClothCameraSceneCfg(num_envs=128, env_spacing=2.5, replicate_physics=False)
     isaacsim_physx = physx
+    ovphysx: FrankaClothCameraSceneCfg = FrankaClothCameraSceneCfg(
+        num_envs=128, env_spacing=2.5, replicate_physics=True
+    )
     default = newton_mjwarp_vbd_proxy
 
 

source/isaaclab_tasks/isaaclab_tasks/core/lift/config/franka_soft/franka_soft_env_cfg.py

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 )
 from isaaclab_newton.sim.schemas import NewtonDeformableBodyPropertiesCfg
 from isaaclab_newton.sim.spawners.materials import NewtonDeformableBodyMaterialCfg
+from isaaclab_ov.physics import OvPhysxCfg
 from isaaclab_physx.physics import PhysxCfg
 from isaaclab_physx.sim.schemas import PhysxCollisionCfg, PhysxDeformableBodyPropertiesCfg
 from isaaclab_physx.sim.spawners.materials import PhysxDeformableBodyMaterialCfg
@@ -50,7 +51,7 @@
     CouplerProxyMappingCfg,
 )
 
-from isaaclab_tasks.utils import PresetCfg
+from isaaclab_tasks.utils import PresetCfg, preset
 from isaaclab_tasks.utils.presets import MultiBackendRendererCfg
 
 from ... import mdp
@@ -135,6 +136,7 @@ class DeformableCfg(PresetCfg):
         ),
     )
     isaacsim_physx = physx
+    ovphysx = physx
 
     default = newton_mjwarp_vbd_proxy
 
@@ -185,8 +187,9 @@ class PhysicsCfg(PresetCfg):
     )
 
     isaacsim_physx: PhysxCfg = PhysxCfg()
+    ovphysx: OvPhysxCfg = OvPhysxCfg()
 
-    physx: PhysxAutoCfg = PhysxAutoCfg(isaacsim_physx=isaacsim_physx)
+    physx: PhysxAutoCfg = PhysxAutoCfg(isaacsim_physx=isaacsim_physx, ovphysx=ovphysx)
 
     default = newton_mjwarp_vbd_proxy
 
@@ -609,9 +612,10 @@ class FrankaSoftSceneCfg(PresetCfg):
         num_envs=2048, env_spacing=2.0, replicate_physics=True
     )
 
-    # PhysX does not support replicating physics for deformable objects
+    # Isaac Sim PhysX does not support replicating physics for deformable objects
     physx: _FrankaSoftSceneCfg = _FrankaSoftSceneCfg(num_envs=2048, env_spacing=2.0, replicate_physics=False)
     isaacsim_physx = physx
+    ovphysx: _FrankaSoftSceneCfg = _FrankaSoftSceneCfg(num_envs=2048, env_spacing=2.0, replicate_physics=True)
 
     default = newton_mjwarp_vbd_proxy
 
@@ -625,6 +629,9 @@ class FrankaSoftCameraSceneCfg(PresetCfg):
     )
     physx: _FrankaSoftCameraSceneCfg = _FrankaSoftCameraSceneCfg(num_envs=128, env_spacing=2.0, replicate_physics=False)
     isaacsim_physx = physx
+    ovphysx: _FrankaSoftCameraSceneCfg = _FrankaSoftCameraSceneCfg(
+        num_envs=128, env_spacing=2.0, replicate_physics=True
+    )
     default = newton_mjwarp_vbd_proxy
 
 
@@ -660,6 +667,25 @@ def __post_init__(self) -> None:
         self.sim.render_interval = self.decimation
         self.sim.physics = PhysicsCfg()
 
+        # OVPhysX does not expose a runtime gravity setter.
+        default_events = self.events
+        self.events = preset(
+            default=default_events,
+            physx=default_events,
+            isaacsim_physx=default_events,
+            newton_mjwarp_vbd_proxy=default_events,
+            ovphysx=default_events.replace(variable_gravity=None),
+        )
+        if self.curriculum is not None:
+            default_curriculum = self.curriculum
+            self.curriculum = preset(
+                default=default_curriculum,
+                physx=default_curriculum,
+                isaacsim_physx=default_curriculum,
+                newton_mjwarp_vbd_proxy=default_curriculum,
+                ovphysx=default_curriculum.replace(gravity=None),
+            )
+
         self.viewer.eye = (0.75, 0.25, 0.65)
         self.viewer.lookat = (0.0, 0.75, 0.4)
         self.sim.default_visualizer_cfg = _FrankaSoftVisualizerCfg(