URDF+: An Enhanced URDF for Robots with Kinematic Loops

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Chignoli, Matthew, Slotine, Jean-Jacques, Wensing, Patrick M., Kim, Sangbae
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Chignoli, Matthew
Slotine, Jean-Jacques
Wensing, Patrick M.
Kim, Sangbae
author_facet Chignoli, Matthew
Slotine, Jean-Jacques
Wensing, Patrick M.
Kim, Sangbae
contents Designs incorporating kinematic loops are becoming increasingly prevalent in the robotics community. Despite the existence of dynamics algorithms to deal with the effects of such loops, many modern simulators rely on dynamics libraries that require robots to be represented as kinematic trees. This requirement is reflected in the de facto standard format for describing robots, the Universal Robot Description Format (URDF), which does not support kinematic loops resulting in closed chains. This paper introduces an enhanced URDF, termed URDF+, which addresses this key shortcoming of URDF while retaining the intuitive design philosophy and low barrier to entry that the robotics community values. The URDF+ keeps the elements used by URDF to describe open chains and incorporates new elements to encode loop joints. We also offer an accompanying parser that processes the system models coming from URDF+ so that they can be used with recursive rigid-body dynamics algorithms for closed-chain systems that group bodies into local, decoupled loops. This parsing process is fully automated, ensuring optimal grouping of constrained bodies without requiring manual specification from the user. We aim to advance the robotics community towards this elegant solution by developing efficient and easy-to-use software tools.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_19753
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle URDF+: An Enhanced URDF for Robots with Kinematic Loops
Chignoli, Matthew
Slotine, Jean-Jacques
Wensing, Patrick M.
Kim, Sangbae
Robotics
Designs incorporating kinematic loops are becoming increasingly prevalent in the robotics community. Despite the existence of dynamics algorithms to deal with the effects of such loops, many modern simulators rely on dynamics libraries that require robots to be represented as kinematic trees. This requirement is reflected in the de facto standard format for describing robots, the Universal Robot Description Format (URDF), which does not support kinematic loops resulting in closed chains. This paper introduces an enhanced URDF, termed URDF+, which addresses this key shortcoming of URDF while retaining the intuitive design philosophy and low barrier to entry that the robotics community values. The URDF+ keeps the elements used by URDF to describe open chains and incorporates new elements to encode loop joints. We also offer an accompanying parser that processes the system models coming from URDF+ so that they can be used with recursive rigid-body dynamics algorithms for closed-chain systems that group bodies into local, decoupled loops. This parsing process is fully automated, ensuring optimal grouping of constrained bodies without requiring manual specification from the user. We aim to advance the robotics community towards this elegant solution by developing efficient and easy-to-use software tools.
title URDF+: An Enhanced URDF for Robots with Kinematic Loops
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.19753