Blender Robotic Utilities

Blender Robotic Utilities for modeling, animation, and rendering.

Note

This repo is still under development.

Demos

ElSpider Air Walking

demo_elspider_air.mp4

Terrain Gen

Confined 2-layer terrain generation.

Getting Started

Installation

Install VS code extension Blender Development for easy development.

Install the package using pip:

<blender_python_path> -m pip install -e ./

Examples

See the examples directory for various usage examples.

Extensions

urdf_importer

Installation

1.Setup Python Env

Linux:

cd <blender_path>/<version>/python/bin/ # For example cd blender-3.1.2-linux-x64/3.1/python/bin/
./python3.10 -m ensurepip
./python3.10 -m pip install --upgrade pip
./python3.10 -m pip install pyyaml
./python3.10 -m pip install rospkg
./python3.10 -m pip install urdf_parser_py

Windows:

Note:

• If Blender is installed to i.e. C:\Program Files, run cmd.exe as administrator!
• Define ROS_ROOT as system environment variable pointing to a folder containing your ROS packages

cd <blender_path>/<version>/python/bin/ # For example cd blender-3.1.2-linux-x64/3.1/python/bin/
./python.exe -m ensurepip
./python.exe -m pip install --upgrade pip
./python.exe -m pip install pyyaml
./python.exe -m pip install rospkg
./python.exe -m pip install urdf_parser_py

2.Install Add-on

• Compress the folder urdf_importer_addon into a ZIP file named urdf_importer_addon.zip.
• Open a terminal, source the ROS workspace that contains the URDF model, and then start Blender by running blender in the terminal.
• In Blender, go to the Edit menu and select Preferences.
• Click on Install.
• Navigate to and select the urdf_importer_addon.zip file, then click Install Add-on.
• Enable the add-on by checking the box next to Import-Export: Import URDF Format.
• Verify the installation by opening File → Import. You should see URDF (.urdf) listed in the menu.

Acknowledgements

• Blender
• urdf_importer