Available Now
Book a demo and get early access. Free trial!
No-Code Automation for Robot Queues: Using n8n with Isaac Sim
May 23, 2025
Robots don’t just move. They wait. They charge. They share tools. If you want your simulation to feel real, you need to model how they take turns — especially when there’s only one charger, one path, or one tool.
That’s where the M/M/1 queue comes in. And with n8n, you can control that logic without writing complex code.
🤖 What Are You Simulating?
Let’s say you’re working in Isaac Sim, NVIDIA’s powerful robotics simulator. You’ve built a virtual warehouse or lab where:
- Robots need to charge
- They don’t always arrive at the same time
- Only one charger is available
You want to simulate:
- Which robot arrives when
- Who gets to charge next
- How long they had to wait
This is a perfect M/M/1 queue setup:
- Random robot arrivals
- One server (charging station)
- Random service times (charging durations)
🔧 Where Does n8n Come In?
n8n is a no-code automation tool — think of it like a visual programming canvas.
You can connect different blocks (called nodes) to build logic, automate flows, and control external systems like Isaac Sim.
It’s perfect for setting up test runs, repeatable workflows, and queue control — without having to touch Python for every case.
🧠 Example: Automating a Robot Charging Queue
Here’s how you can simulate an M/M/1 queue using Isaac Sim + n8n:
Step-by-Step Flow:
- HTTP Request Node
- Trigger a new simulation run or robot arrival.
- Function Node
- Generate a random arrival time using:
const u = Math.random()
return { arrivalTime: -1 * beta * Math.log(u) }
- Wait for that arrival time before sending the next robot.
- Is the charging station busy?
- If yes → enqueue robot
- If no → begin charging and schedule departure
- Randomly calculate and trigger end-of-charging time.
- Save delay times to Google Sheets or JSON files for review.
🚫 Not Built for Real-Time Simulation
- Limitation: n8n is good for scheduling and automation, but not designed for millisecond-level real-time coordination.
- Impact: For robot physics, collisions, or frame-by-frame control, you’ll still need native Isaac Sim scripting.
🔄 How Champion Uses n8n to Scale Robot Simulation Workflows
At Champion, we use n8n as a no-code orchestration layer to automate everything around simulation — especially the repetitive parts that slow teams down.
With n8n, we:
- Automatically trigger Isaac Sim test runs for different CAD models
- Generate random queue conditions (like arrival and service rates)
- Schedule and run hundreds of scenario variations
- Log wait times, failures, and performance data to a central dashboard
This allows engineers to focus on designing smarter environments, not babysitting scripts.
By combining Champion’s CAD-to-USD conversion with n8n automation, teams can build rich simulations, run structured tests, and gather insights — all without touching the underlying code every time.