Coal
- Software
- Robot arms and industry
- Library
Coal is a C++ collision detection library, an extension of the Flexible Collision Library, with Python bindings. It computes collisions, distances and contacts between geometric shapes.
Made by Coal.
Source on GitHub: github.com/coal-library/coal (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 6014b0c (opens in a new tab).
Licenses
- Code
- BSD-3-Clause (opens in a new tab)
Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (BSD-3-Clause) at commit 6014b0c (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
What it does
- Implements dedicated GJK and EPA algorithms instead of relying on libccd.
- Supports safety margins for collision detection and lower bounds on distance when no collision is found.
- Computes contact points and contact patches between objects.
- Supports primitive shapes, convex meshes, BVHs, height fields and octrees, and has Python bindings.
- Used by robotics frameworks such as Pinocchio, the Humanoid Path Planner and Simple.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 6014b0c.
Getting started
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- How to start
- The project's README (opens in a new tab)
Maintenance
- Status
- Active: a commit in the last 90 days
- Newest commit
- 16 Oct 2026 on devel
- Latest release
- Release v3.0.4 (29 Jun 2026)
Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.
Links
Robots on Robotheca that use it
No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.
Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.