fieldpilot-urdf 0.4.0

Import any ROS robot from a URL and run FK/IK/collision/validation in pure Python — no ROS install, no build.

fieldpilot-urdf

Import any ROS robot from a URL and run FK / IK / collision / validation / repair in pure Python. No ROS install, no build.

fieldpilot-urdf is the open core of FieldPilot's robotics toolkit — small, self-contained, pure-Python. Point it at a robot on GitHub and get a working kinematic model in three lines.

Status: 0.4.0 — published on PyPI. 17 open modules + 166 passing tests. pip install fieldpilot-urdf (see RELEASING.md for how releases are cut).

Install

pip install fieldpilot-urdf                # core (parse, FK, IK, validation)
pip install "fieldpilot-urdf[mesh]"        # + mesh-aware self-collision (trimesh)
pip install "fieldpilot-urdf[viz]"         # + kinematic-tree / 3D-pose renderers
pip install "fieldpilot-urdf[dynamics]"    # + Kane's-method symbolic dynamics (sympy)
pip install "fieldpilot-urdf[all]"         # everything

Import any ROS robot in 3 lines

from fieldpilot_urdf import import_urdf, run_all, summary

# Point at any ROS robot on GitHub — xacro, $(find), and <xacro:include> expand
robot, _ = import_urdf(
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros-industrial/universal_robot/melodic-devel/"
    "ur_description/urdf/ur5.urdf.xacro"
)

print(robot.name, len(robot.links), "links", len(robot.joints), "joints")
print(summary(run_all(robot)))   # validate: {'total': 0, 'error': 0, ...}

Then do something real:

from fieldpilot_urdf import forward_kinematics, solve_ik, detect_self_collisions

poses = forward_kinematics(robot)                       # {link: 4x4 world transform}
ik = solve_ik(robot, "tool0", target_xyz=(0.4, 0.1, 0.5))
print(ik.converged, ik.position_error)                  # numerical IK, honours limits
print(detect_self_collisions(robot))                    # [(link_a, link_b), ...]

Validate & auto-repair

from fieldpilot_urdf import from_file, run_all, summary, repair

robot = from_file("maybe_broken.urdf")
findings = run_all(robot)                 # 8 lint rules (R001–R008)
print(summary(findings))                  # {'total': 3, 'error': 1, 'warning': 2, ...}

fixed, patches, unfixable = repair(robot)  # deterministic fixes for the repairable rules
print([p.code for p in patches])           # e.g. ['R003', 'R005']
print("left for a human:", unfixable)      # rule codes that can't be auto-fixed
print(summary(run_all(fixed)))             # fewer (often zero) findings

Render (needs the [viz] extra)

from fieldpilot_urdf.viz import render_kinematic_tree, render_pose_3d

open("tree.png", "wb").write(render_kinematic_tree(robot))      # graphviz
open("pose.png", "wb").write(render_pose_3d(robot, fmt="png"))  # matplotlib

Symbolic fault diagnosis

from fieldpilot_urdf import diagnose, Symptom, Hypothesis

# "tool can't reach this pose" — is a dead shoulder motor the cause?
report = diagnose(
    robot,
    Symptom(kind="cant_reach", target_link="tool0", target_xyz=(0.4, 0.1, 0.5)),
    [Hypothesis(suspect_joint="shoulder_pan_joint", fault_mode="motor_dead")],
)
print(report.verdict, "—", report.summary)   # CONFIRMED / REFUTED / INCONCLUSIVE

(The natural-language front-end that generates hypotheses from a free-text symptom via an LLM is part of FieldPilot SaaS.)

Localise a fault on the kinematic graph

from fieldpilot_urdf import affected_links, criticality, rank_root_causes

# Which links does a faulty joint drag down, and how much mass is at stake?
affected_links(robot, "shoulder_pan_joint")   # {'upper_arm_link', 'forearm_link', 'wrist_1_link', ...}
criticality(robot, "shoulder_pan_joint")      # 0.0–1.0, mass-weighted downstream impact

# Reverse: a tech reports the wrist + tool went limp — which joint best explains it?
ranked = rank_root_causes(robot, ["wrist_3_link", "tool0"])
print(ranked[0].target, round(ranked[0].score, 3))   # suspect joint, precision×recall score

Pure NetworkX graph reasoning — deterministic, in the core install. The ranked suspects can feed straight into diagnose as hypotheses. (The LLM/NL symptom front-end stays in FieldPilot SaaS.)

Symbolic dynamics (needs the [dynamics] extra)

from fieldpilot_urdf.dynamics import SymbolicDynamics

dyn = SymbolicDynamics(robot)                 # Kane's method on the kinematic tree
print(dyn.n_dof)                              # actuated DOF
print(dyn.mass_matrix)                        # symbolic M(q)
print(dyn.forcing)                            # symbolic F(q, q̇, τ) = τ − C(q,q̇)q̇ − G(q)

# Forward dynamics as a NumPy callable, ready for scipy.integrate.solve_ivp:
fwd = dyn.lambdify_forward_dynamics()         # (q, u, tau) -> q̈   (solves M·q̈ = F)
qdd = fwd([0.0] * dyn.n_dof, [0.0] * dyn.n_dof, [0.0] * dyn.n_dof)

Tree (serial) robots only in this release. Joint-origin frames follow URDF's Rz(yaw)·Ry(pitch)·Rx(roll) convention, so dyn.link_pose(link, q) matches forward_kinematics to machine precision. Closed-loop mechanisms and multi-DOF joints (floating/planar/spherical) raise UnsupportedSystemError.

What you can do

Capability	API
Parse URDF ⇄ model	from_xml, from_file, to_xml
Import a robot from a URL (xacro/includes/meshes)	import_urdf
Forward kinematics	forward_kinematics
Inverse kinematics (numerical, limit-aware)	solve_ik
Self-collision (AABB + mesh)	detect_self_collisions
Workspace / trajectory sampling	sample_workspace, check_trajectory
8 lint rules (R001–R008)	run_all, summary
Deterministic auto-repair	repair
Two-tier symbolic fault diagnosis	diagnose
Fault propagation & root-cause ranking	affected_links, criticality, rank_root_causes
Symbolic dynamics (Kane's method)	SymbolicDynamics
Render kinematic tree / 3D pose	render_kinematic_tree, render_pose_3d
Local robot registry	save_robot, load_robot, list_robots

How this compares

The Python URDF ecosystem already has good parsers. fieldpilot-urdf is not trying to replace them — it sits one layer up, as an analysis toolkit.

• urchin is the maintained fork of the classic urdfpy (unmaintained since 2020, won't install on Python 3.10+). Reach for it if you want the original urdfpy API and mesh-heavy visualization on a modern Python.
• yourdfpy is the most robust loader of real-world URDFs and ships an excellent visualization CLI. Reach for it if your priority is parsing messy URDFs found in the wild.

Reach for fieldpilot-urdf when parsing is the start, not the goal — when you also want to solve IK (numerical, joint-limit-aware), import a robot straight from a URL ($(find) / <xacro:include> / xacro expansion, with SSRF defenses), lint a URDF (8 rules, R001–R008) and deterministically auto-repair the fixable ones, and run symbolic fault diagnosis ("is a dead shoulder motor why the tool can't reach?"). The core install stays light — pydantic + numpy + scipy + networkx — with mesh/viz as optional extras, so you never pull pyrender or pycollada unless you ask for them.

Need to load a difficult URDF more than analyze it? yourdfpy is probably the better fit — and fieldpilot-urdf happily consumes anything it can export.

⭐ Want more?

The open toolkit gives you the robotics. FieldPilot (the hosted SaaS) adds the parts you can't easily self-host:

• a natural-language fault-diagnosis front-end (describe a symptom → ranked hypotheses),
• a 13-tool LLM chat over your robot,
• a spare-parts BOM with pricing, and
• multi-tenant hosting, Telegram bots, and the agro-food field-service pipeline.

→ Star this repo and check out FieldPilot SaaS.

Security

import_urdf fetches a user-supplied URL, so it ships SSRF defences (HTTPS-only, host allowlist, 5 MB cap, timeout, redirect re-validation). See SECURITY.md for how to configure the allowlist and report issues.

License

AGPL-3.0-only. Free to self-host, modify, and use; network use obliges source disclosure. A commercial license is available for closed/embedded use — see FieldPilot.