🤖 RobotLibrary

RobotLibrary is a C++ package for modeling, trajectory generation, and control of robots. The initial release supports real-time velocity control of serial link robot arms (work on torque control is underway). The interfaces are designed to provide simple inputs and outputs, without needing to know anything about the algorithms underneath.

The modular design means you can utilize different components to develop your own controllers. For example, you can inherit the SerialLinkBase class in the Control sub-library and implement your own algorithms for the joint and Cartesian control methods. Or, you can use the KinematicTree in the Model sub-library for the inverse dynamics and write your own controller from scratch.

• Sections of the Library
• Installation
  • Requirements
  • Installing Eigen
  • Installing RobotLibrary
• Using RobotLibrary
  • In Another Project
  • Examples
• Release Notes
• Contributing
• License

🏛️ Sections of the Library

• Control: Classes for real-time, feedback control.
• Math: Supporting functions & classes for other parts of the library.
• Model: Classes for computing the kinematics & dynamics of rigid-body structures.
• Trajectory: Classes for generating paths through space & time.

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💾 Installation

Requirements:

• CMake 3.14 or higher
• C++17 or higher
• Eigen3 v3.4 or higher

Installing Eigen:

Note

You need to manually install Eigen 3.4 if you're using Ubuntu 20.04.

Ubuntu 20.04

1. First ensure prerequisites are installed:

   sudo apt update

   sudo apt install -y build-essential cmake git

2. Download version 3.4 directly (or from the webpage):

   wget https://gitlab.com/libeigen/eigen/-/archive/3.4.0/eigen-3.4.0.tar.gz

3. Extract the downloaded file:

   tar -xvf eigen-3.4.0.tar.gz

   cd eigen-3.4.0

4. Build and install:

   mkdir build && cd build

   cmake ../

   sudo make install

Ubuntu 22.04 & Later

Eigen 3.4 is automatically installed on later versions of Ubuntu. In the command line you can run:

sudo apt install libeigen3-dev

Installing RobotLibrary:

1. Clone this repository in to your working directory:

   git clone https://github.com/Woolfrey/software_robot_library.git

2. Navigate in to the folder:

   cd ~/<your_working_directory>/software_robot_library

3. Create a build directory and navigate in to it:

   mkdir build && cd build

4. Run the following commands in the build directory:

   cmake ..

   sudo make install

You should now be able to include different parts of the library in your C++ files.

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🚀 Using RobotLibrary

In Another Project:

When using RobotLibrary classes in another project, it is necessary to link both Eigen and RobotLibrary when compiling executables. For example, we may want to use the KinematicTree class in the example.cpp of the following example project:

example_project/
├── build/
├── src/
|   └── example.cpp
└── CMakeLists.txt

In the example.cpp file we can include the KinematicTree header file under RobotLibrary:

#include <RobotLibrary/Model/KinematicTree.h>
...
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
     RobotLibrary::Model::KinematicTree model("path/to/robot.urdf");
}

Then, in the CMakeLists.txt file, we must:

1. Tell the compiler to find both Eigen3 and RobotLibrary, and
2. Link RobotLibrary and Eigen3 to the executable that uses any RobotLibrary classes:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.8)
project(example)
...
find_package(Eigen3 REQUIRED)
find_package(RobotLibrary REQUIRED)

include_directories(${EIGEN3_INCLUDE_DIR}) 
...
add_executable(example src/example.cpp)
target_link_libraries(example RobotLibrary::RobotLibrary Eigen3::Eigen)

Inside the example_project/build folder it should be possible to compile the project:

cmake ..
make

Examples:

If you would like to see examples where RobotLibrary has been applied, you can check out:

• Serial Link Action Server : My own ROS2 action servers for control,
• Kuka iiwa14 velocity control : a ROS2 package which implements the former action server, and
• TestingRobotLibrary : C++ executables I use for numerical validation of RobotLibrary.

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📦 Release Notes - v1.0.0 (April 2025)

🎉 Initial Release:

• Control:
  • SerialLinkBase : Base class providing common structure for all child classes.
  • SerialKinematicControl : Joint velocity & Cartesian velocity control algorithms.
• Math:
  • MathFunctions : Helper functions for other classes.
  • Polynomial : Generates a scalar, polynomial function.
  • SkewSymmetric: Converted an Eigen::Vector3d object to an anti-symmetric Eigen::Matrix3d object.
  • Spline : Connects multiple points using polynomials, whilst ensuring continuity.
• Model:
  • Joint : Models an actuated joint on a robot.
  • KinematicTree : Kinematic & dynamic modeling of branching, serial-link structures.
  • Link : Represents a combined Joint and RigidBody object.
  • Pose : Position and orientation; $\mathbb{SE}(3)$.
  • RigidBody : Dynamics for a single, solid object.
• Trajectory:
  • CartesianSpline : Generates smooth trajectories over a series of poses.
  • SplineTrajectory : Generates smooth trajectories over a series of points.
  • TrajectoryBase : Provides common structure to all trajectory classes.
  • TrapezoidalVelocity : Trajectory with constant sections, and ramps up and down.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to fork the library, make your own improvements, and issue a pull request.

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📜 License

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