Pancake Simulation

Our final goal is to use a robotic arm to control a spatula and implement an autonomous cooking robot. To achieve this, NVIDIA Omniverse is a good tool to generate diverse video simulations, which are used to train a robotic arm’s motion for real-world deployment.

In this project, I use Isaac Sim as the physics engine to simulate the process of cooking a pancake. By tuning physical parameters of the batter and pancake, I created a realistic animation that mimics real-world pancake cooking behavior in a kitchen setting.

Object Settings

Object	Source	Collider	Physics Property	Material
Pan	3DGS to Mesh Grid	Yes	-	-
Spatula		Yes	Rigid Body	-
Container		Yes	-	-
Batter	Mesh Grid	No	Particle Sampler with Isosurface	PBD Particle
Pancake		No	Deformable Body	Deformable Body

Physics Scene Configuration

Because the state of batter and pancake can’t transfor like the real world work, I use two separate physics scenes — one for the batter and one for the cooked pancake — because physics interactions in Omniverse occur even if an object is invisible. Separating them ensures clean transitions and prevents unwanted interactions.

1. Scene 1: container, batter, pan
2. Scene 2: spatula, pancake, pan

Adjusting Physical Parameters

Fluid Parameter	Left	Middle	Right
density	1.0	10.0	0.0
fiction	0.0	0.2	0.2
surface tension	0.0	0.5	0.0
viscosity	0.0	50.0	50000.0
cohesion	0.0
damping	0.0
drag	0.0
lift	0.0

Final Physical Parameters

Most parameters are set as defualt, except

Object	Parameters	Value	Unit
Pancake (Mesh)	mass	0.2	kg
	simulation mesh resolution	5	-
	vertex velocity damping	10	1/s
	rest offset	0	m
Pancake (Material)	dynamic fiction	0.5	-
	Young's modulus	50000	kg/m/s2=N/m2
Batter (Particle System)	particle contact offset	0.005	m
Pancake (Material)	density	10	kg/m3
	surface tension	0.5	1/m3
	viscosity	50	-

Simulation Result