🤖 Robot Library

Robot Library is a C++ package for modeling, trajectory generation, and control of robots. The current release supports velocity, and (inertia-free) impedance control of serial link robot arms.

✨ Features:

• Everything is contained in one library: modeling, control, and trajectory generation.
• Easy-to-use control classes with automatic joint limit avoidance, redundancy resolution, singularity avoidance, etc.
• Modular design:
  • Build your own controllers from SerialLinkBase class, or make one entirely from scratch with the KinematicTree class.
  • Use the trajectory generation classes for your controller. Or don't - make your own!
• Full inverse dynamics for floating-base robots with the KinematicTree class.
• All you need is a URDF to get started 😎

🧭 Navigation:

• Sections of the Library
• Installation
  • Requirements
  • Installing Eigen
  • Installing RobotLibrary
• Using Robot Library
  • In Another Project
  • Examples
• Contributing
• Citing this Repository
• 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.

The diagram below shows how the different libraries interact:

graph LR

   subgraph Hardware
      Robot
   end

   subgraph RobotLibrary

      subgraph Algorithms
         Trajectory -- "Reference State" --> Control
         Control -- "Joint Commands" --> Robot
         Robot -- "Actual State" --> Model
         Model -- "Kinematics & Dynamics" --> Control
      end
   
      subgraph Support
           Math
      end

      Support -. "Functions" .-> Algorithms

   end

Loading

🔝 Back to Top.

💾 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.

🔝 Back to Top.

🚀 Using Robot Library

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,
• Serial Link Velocity Control : A ROS2 package for controlling the joint or Cartesian velocity of serial link robots, or
• Serial Link Impedance Control : A ROS2 package for controlling the joint or Cartesian impedance of serial link robots.

🔝 Back to Top.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions to this repositore are welcome! Feel free to:

1. Fork the repository,
2. Implement your changes / improvements, then
3. Issue a pull request.

If you're looking for ideas, you can always check the Issues tab for those with 🙋 [OPEN]. These are things I'd like to implement, but don't have time for. It'd be much appreciated, and you'll be tagged as a contributor 😎

🔝 Back to Top.

📑 Citing this Repository

If you find this code useful, spread the word by acknowledging it. Click on Cite this repository under the About section in the top-right corner of this page ↗️.

Here's a BibTeX reference:

@misc{woolfrey_robotlibrary_2025,
  author       = {Woolfrey, Jon},
  title        = {RobotLibrary},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/Woolfrey/software_robot_library}},
  note         = {Version 2.0.0},
  year         = {2025},
  month        = {aug},
  day          = {11},
  orcid        = {0000-0001-5926-5669}
}

Here's the automatically generated APA format:

Woolfrey, J. (2025). Robot Library (Version 2.0.0). Retrieved from https://github.com/Woolfrey/software_robot_library

🔝 Back to Top.

📜 License

This project is licensed under an Open Source / Commercial Use License (OSCL). You are free to use, modify, and (re)distribute this software at no cost under the following conditions:

• You may incorporate this software into your own project, as long as your project also remains free and open source.
• You may use this software in a closed-source, proprietary, or commercial product or service, but you must obtain a commercial license. Please contact [email protected] to discuss licensing terms and royalties.

This license is designed to encourage open collaboration — but if you profit, then so must I (if only a little 🤏). See the full LICENSE for complete terms.

🔝 Back to Top.