# Simulation first

NVIDIA Isaac Sim and open-source Gazebo let you build and train robots in physics-accurate virtual worlds — free — before buying hardware. Imitation learning (learning from human demonstrations) overtook reinforcement learning as the main training method in 2026.

Canonical: https://robauto.ai/learn/iot-robotics/16

_IoT & Robotics: AI in the Physical World — lesson 16 of 20 (PLAYBOOK)_

NVIDIA Isaac Sim and open-source Gazebo let you build and train robots in physics-accurate virtual worlds — free — before buying hardware. Imitation learning (learning from human demonstrations) overtook reinforcement learning as the main training method in 2026.

Source: [NVIDIA Isaac Sim; State of Robotics 2026](https://developer.nvidia.com/isaac/sim?utm_source=robauto)

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