Robotics Library

Visualize complex scenarios and synchronize with kinematics and sensor data.

C++ library for robotics

The Robotics Library (RL) is a self-contained C++ library for robot kinematics, motion planning and control. It covers mathematics, kinematics and dynamics, hardware abstraction, motion planning, collision detection, and visualization.

It is being used by several research projects (e.g., JAHIR, JAMES, JAST, SMErobotics) and in education, available under a BSD license, and free for use in commercial applications.

RL can be run on all machines from real-time patched Linux to Windows desktop PCs. It uses CMake as a build system, may be compiled with GCC and Visual Studio.

Test for collisions and solve complex path planning queries.

Getting started

Windows installation is now easily done with an installer that also includes binaries of external dependencies.

Ubuntu package installation is by far the most convenient way to try out RL. You can add the Launchpad respository, install the latest version within your package manager and run the examples.

Follow the tutorials and learn how to develop with RL once it is installed.

Calculate kinematics and dynamics with support for tree-like structures.

Further reading

Watch a video of a simple path planning example and a video of a robot workspace research scenario

Have a look at our IROS paper, the API documentation, and the frequently asked questions (FAQ).

Build RL from source on your system by downloading the latest source files from GitHub and following the building instructions for Windows or Ubuntu.