Sim-to-Real Deployment¶

Deploying a trained G1-29DOF locomotion policy to the physical robot.

Overview¶

The deploy pipeline runs a C++ controller (g1_ctrl) on a laptop directly wired to the robot. The controller:

Loads the trained ONNX policy
Reads joint state + IMU from the robot via DDS (CycloneDDS over ethernet)
Runs the policy at 50 Hz
Sends joint position commands back to the robot

The controller runs on the Mac (or any machine with a direct ethernet connection to the G1). It does not run on the Jetson.

Mac (g1_ctrl) ←─── DDS over ethernet ───→ G1 (locomotion computer)
    ↑
policy.onnx (ONNX Runtime)

Our Trained Policy¶

Location on workstation:

~/GIT/unitree_rl_lab/logs/rsl_rl/unitree_g1_29dof_velocity/2026-03-06_14-30-46/
├── exported/
│   ├── policy.onnx   ← deploy this
│   └── policy.pt
├── params/
│   └── deploy.yaml   ← PD gains, joint IDs, obs scaling
└── model_7200.pt     ← final checkpoint (7200 epochs)

Velocity ranges trained:

Axis	Min	Max
Forward (vx)	-0.5 m/s	1.0 m/s
Lateral (vy)	-0.3 m/s	0.3 m/s
Yaw rate	-0.2 rad/s	0.2 rad/s

Setup: Build the Controller¶

Prerequisites (install once on workstation or Mac)¶

sudo apt install -y libyaml-cpp-dev libboost-all-dev libeigen3-dev libspdlog-dev libfmt-dev

Install unitree_sdk2¶

git clone git@github.com:unitreerobotics/unitree_sdk2.git
cd unitree_sdk2
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DBUILD_EXAMPLES=OFF
sudo make install

This installs the DDS library to /usr/local.

Compile g1_ctrl¶

cd ~/GIT/unitree_rl_lab/deploy/robots/g1_29dof
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && make

Binary: deploy/robots/g1_29dof/build/g1_ctrl

Configure: Point at Our Trained Policy¶

Edit deploy/robots/g1_29dof/config/config.yaml, find the Velocity section and switch the policy_dir:

Velocity:
  # policy_dir: config/policy/velocity  # ← default (Unitree's pre-trained)
  policy_dir: ../../../logs/rsl_rl/unitree_g1_29dof_velocity/2026-03-06_14-30-46  # ← our trained policy

The controller looks for policy_dir/exported/policy.onnx and policy_dir/params/deploy.yaml.

Run: Connecting to the Robot¶

Step 1: Wire up¶

On the Mac, connect USB-A to USB-C ethernet adapter to neck port 4 or 5. Set static IP:

sudo ifconfig en13 192.168.123.100 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Verify Jetson is reachable:

ssh unitree@192.168.123.164

Step 2: Close the onboard controller¶

Critical — do this before running g1_ctrl

The onboard locomotion program must be stopped before you send joint commands. Running two controllers simultaneously will cause undefined behavior and could damage the robot.

Check with Unitree docs how to stop the onboard controller. Typically via the app or SSH to the locomotion computer (requires UniPwn or Unitree support).

Step 3: Run g1_ctrl¶

cd ~/GIT/unitree_rl_lab/deploy/robots/g1_29dof/build
./g1_ctrl --network en13   # en13 = USB ethernet adapter on Mac

Step 4: Controller sequence¶

Use the wireless controller:

Button	Action
`LT + ↑`	Passive → FixStand (robot stands up)
`RB + X`	FixStand → Velocity (RL policy active)
`LT + B`	Any → Passive (safe stop)

Start slow — use small velocity commands to verify the policy behaves as expected before pushing to full speed.

Troubleshooting¶

DDS can't connect: Make sure the ethernet interface name matches (--network en13 or whatever ifconfig shows). The G1's DDS domain is 0.

Policy file not found: Check that policy_dir in config.yaml resolves correctly relative to the g1_ctrl binary's working directory. Run from the build/ directory.

Robot falls immediately: The trained policy has conservative velocity ranges. Do not command velocities outside the training range (±0.5 m/s forward, ±0.3 m/s lateral, ±0.2 rad/s yaw). Make sure FixStand completes fully (3-second interpolation) before switching to Velocity mode.