What is the URDF?

This module covers what a URDF (Uniform Robotics Description Format) is and why it is important in the context of robotic development and ROS2.

URDF (Unified Robot Description Format) is a file format for specifying the geometry and organization of robots in ROS.

URDF's are made up of 2 basic elements Links and Joints. Links are the elements that define the shape and size of the robot. They are the building blocks of the robot and are connected by joints. Joints are the elements that connect two links in a robot. They define the relative motion between the links.

Josh Newman explains defining a URDF in ROS2. The nice thing about URDF creator is that the URDF can be made visually as it gets updated instead of manually writing out the URDF.

Citations:

D. Tola and P. Corke, "Understanding URDF: A Dataset and Analysis," in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 4479-4486, May 2024, doi: 10.1109/LRA.2024.3381482