# Data exchange with NOVA

> Learn which data is exchanged between NVIDIA Isaac Sim and a NOVA instance through the Wandelbots NOVA Isaac Sim extension, including robot state, trajectories, controller data, and IO/Bus signals for peripheral control.

The data exchanged between NVIDIA Isaac Sim and a NOVA instance falls into the following categories:

| Data | Description |
| - | - |
| Robot state data | Live joint angles and TCP pose, streamed continuously at a fixed rate to keep the simulated and physical robot in sync. |
| Kinematics | The robot's kinematic model used to interpret and reproduce motion. |
| Trajectories | Motion plans generated with the NOVA API that can be executed or visualized in Isaac Sim. |
| Robot configuration | Parameters describing how the robot is set up. |
| Instance, cell, and motion group data | The structure of the NOVA setup: the instance, its cell(s), and the motion group(s) within them. |
| Controller data | Information about the robot controller connected to the motion group. |
| IO / Bus signals | Read and write access to robot controller IOs and fieldbus, e.g., Profinet signals. |

The extension is extensible: any additional data can be exposed through the Isaac Sim Extension API.
Which data you use from the NOVA side depends on your application. For example, you can generate
[synthetic images](/simulation/synthetic-data) in Isaac Sim and process them in your NOVA Python
scripts, or create robot trajectories with the NOVA API and visualize them in Isaac Sim.

## Controlling peripherals

Peripherals such as the gluing-gun master in a gluing cell can be driven alongside robot motion.
For example, a NOVA instance can move the robot along a trajectory and, at the same time, send
start and stop signals to the gluing-gun master. Peripherals are controlled in one of two ways:

- **IO / Bus signals**: trigger robot controller IOs or fieldbus, e.g., PROFINET, Bus IOs to start
  and stop the peripheral. See [Connect IO signals with OmniGraph nodes](/simulation/omnigraph-nodes/connect-ios).
- **Direct API calls**: control the peripheral programmatically through the NOVA API.

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