urdf
Create and modify URDF (Unified Robot Description Format) files to define robot kinematics, joint structures, and link hierarchies. This skill helps roboticists and engineers build frame-correct kinematic models for simulation, visualization, and control system integration. Streamline your robot description workflow with intelligent URDF generation and editing capabilities.
urdf helps you create URDF files by guiding you through robot structure definition. Start by defining your robot's base link, then add joints and child links with proper frame origins and axes. urdf supports both manual XML editing and Python gen_urdf() source generation for reproducible, version-controlled robot models. You can validate geometry, mesh references, joint limits, and inertial properties as you build.
AI-generated summary based on this skill's SKILL.md
Install
earthtojake/text-to-cad/urdf · repository language: JavaScript
git clone https://github.com/earthtojake/text-to-cad
cp -r text-to-cad/skills/urdf ~/.claude/skills/urdfFrequently asked questions
AI-generated answers based on this skill's SKILL.md and metadata
How do I create a URDF file for my robot?
urdf helps you create URDF files by guiding you through robot structure definition. Start by defining your robot's base link, then add joints and child links with proper frame origins and axes. urdf supports both manual XML editing and Python gen_urdf() source generation for reproducible, version-controlled robot models. You can validate geometry, mesh references, joint limits, and inertial properties as you build.
What can urdf validate in my robot description?
urdf validates joint, geometry, mesh, and inertial correctness across your entire robot model. It checks frame semantics, origin transforms, joint axes alignment, collision and visual geometry setup, mesh file references and scaling, and inertial parameter consistency. These validations catch spatial transform errors and configuration mistakes before you deploy to RViz, Gazebo, MoveIt, or your robot driver.
How do I debug URDF frame conventions and spatial transforms?
urdf helps debug frame semantics by analyzing origins, axes, and spatial transforms throughout your kinematic chain. It identifies misaligned joint axes, incorrect parent-child link relationships, and transform inconsistencies that break visualization or control. Use urdf's frame validation to verify that each link's origin and each joint's axis conform to your robot's actual geometry and design intent.
Can urdf generate Python source code for robot model creation?
Yes. urdf creates Python gen_urdf() sources that programmatically generate your robot description. This approach enables reproducible, version-controlled robot model generation and makes it easy to parameterize designs, iterate on configurations, and integrate robot definitions into build pipelines or simulation workflows.
Which simulation and control frameworks does urdf support?
urdf prepares URDF outputs for RViz visualization, Gazebo physics simulation, MoveIt motion planning, and robot drivers. By validating frame correctness, joint limits, inertials, and mesh geometry, urdf ensures your robot description works reliably across these frameworks without requiring manual fixes or compatibility patches.
What is urdf's license and how can I use it?
urdf is released under the MIT license, allowing free use, modification, and distribution in both open-source and commercial projects. You can integrate urdf into your robotics workflows, extend it for custom validation rules, or embed it in your own tools without licensing restrictions.
SKILL.md
rendered from the published skill — quoted content, verbatim
URDF
Provenance: maintained in earthtojake/text-to-cad. Use the installed local skill files as the runtime source of truth; the repository link is only for provenance and release review.
Use this skill for URDF robot-description outputs. Treat URDF work as constrained kinematic modeling, not just XML writing. The main correctness risks are frame placement, joint-axis semantics, unit consistency, mesh scale, inertial data, and generated-artifact drift.
Core Rules
- Treat the Python source that defines
gen_urdf()as the source of truth. Treat configured.urdffiles as generated
(truncated - see the full file via the links below)
Read as markdown · JSON record · Browse the source repository
File tree — 15 files
skills/urdf/LICENSE
skills/urdf/SKILL.md
skills/urdf/agents/openai.yaml
skills/urdf/references/design-ledger.md
skills/urdf/references/frame-semantics.md
skills/urdf/references/gen-urdf.md
skills/urdf/references/generator-contract.md
skills/urdf/references/urdf-workflow.md
skills/urdf/references/validation.md
skills/urdf/requirements.txt
skills/urdf/scripts/packages/cadpy_metadata/pyproject.toml
skills/urdf/scripts/packages/cadpy_metadata/src/cadpy_metadata/__init__.py
skills/urdf/scripts/packages/cadpy_metadata/src/cadpy_metadata/generator.py
skills/urdf/scripts/packages/cadpy_metadata/src/cadpy_metadata/py.typed
skills/urdf/scripts/urdf/__init__.py