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URML (open robot intent language): an urchin to capability-manifest adapter? — request for comment #40

@idoco2003

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@idoco2003

Hi urchin maintainer,

URML (urml.dev) is a small, Apache-2.0 language for describing robot intent: it validates a request against a capability manifest and a safety envelope, then dispatches. As the actively-maintained successor to urdfpy, urchin is a clean modern Python URDF library — a natural building block for an adapter that derives or cross-checks URML capability-manifest fields from a URDF.

Nothing here asks the project to adopt, host, or maintain anything. This is a request for comment.

urchin parses a URDF and computes forward kinematics in Python; a URML manifest declares capabilities and a safety envelope. An adapter could read reach/DOF/joint limits from an urchin model into a URML manifest skeleton, leaving payload, graspable classes, and the safety envelope to explicit declaration. URML's (Python) validator could use urchin to keep a manifest consistent with the robot's URDF. The split: urchin gives the URDF + FK; the manifest gives capability + safety.

Two real questions: (1) Would a thin urchin to URML manifest-skeleton adapter be useful, and what URDF/FK fields map cleanly? (2) Which capability-manifest fields are genuinely outside URDF (payload, graspable classes, safety envelope), and where should the boundary sit?

Full write-up: https://github.com/URML-MARS/URML/blob/main/docs/rfcs/0462-urchin-outreach.md

Thanks for urchin; keeping a clean URDF + FK Python library alive is a real service, and a great foundation for this kind of adapter.

Ido Yahalomi (URML, greenvh@gmail.com)

AI-assisted prose, maintainer-reviewed before posting (see VIBE.md). Human-only correspondence available on request.

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