LoadURDFLinkage

• The Unified Robot Description Format (URDF) is an XML specification to describe a robot. It is capable of describing linkages with tree topologies. Further information can be found in the http://wiki.ros.org/urdf/XML/model web page

• The format describes the following items:

• Kinematic and dynamic structure of the robot ( Kinematic graph )

• Visual representation of the robot (mesh files/ graphics primitives)

• Collision model of the robot (mesh files)

• LoadURDFLinkage function imports the kinematic structure and visual representation of the linkage.

• URDF file usually reference other files that is stored in a specified directory structure see below:

• /MYROBOT_description package.xml CMakeLists.txt /urdf /meshes /materials /cad

• LoadURDFLinkage uses the full path to the URDF file as input and assumes that the this file is in the /urdf subdirectory of the urdf-root directory ( MYROBOT_description dir ). It is also assumed that the referenced mesh files path is specified in the URDF file relative to the urdf-root directory.