Support for physics simulation engines for robotics (URDF)

[julius.sustarevas.16]

Hi,

Modelling robots for simulation with physics engines (ODE, Bullet etc) via simulators like gazebo, Vrep etc is still a very rough process as these simulators require robot description files like sdf, urdf etc.  Fusion 360 has overwhelming momentum in the maker and robotics communities, now is the time to complete the pipeline of robot development via support for SDF and URDF  formats in order to enable rapid deployment onto ROS-enabled simulators to test state of the art robotics software. 

This issued has been brought up before here

This could be addressed via plugin for exporting sdf/urdf. Preferably this would include physics information i.e.  mass, moments of inertia of parts computed according to their material etc. 

[julius.sustarevas.16]

The URDF post has 237 Views and 4 votes. Let's bring the votes on for this!

[hjholweger]

Autodesk is a sponsor of FIRST Robotics, and as a member of that community, I want this feature implemented for my team's use.

[julius.sustarevas.16]

I was thinking maybe Fusion could implement some 'recommended workflow' for robotics simulation applications.  For example automatically exporting simplified meshes for collision meshes.  Or otherwise helping in developing a good sdf/urdf.

[Anonymous]

I voted. I need this now. Is their any other strategy besides just using solid works to model my robot?

[Anonymous]

Hmmm. Seems like someone wrote a plugin. https://github.com/Roboy/SDFusion

[julius.sustarevas.16]

Yes, I believe this plugin was based on someones master project or something.  Its a good start. But the key is still I think an official recommended workflow for robot physics simulations. 

[julius.sustarevas.16]

Seriously, @Anonymous, you make this  nice and slick, and you will capture the whole robotics sim market.