DART (Dynamic Animation and Robotics Toolkit)
- Software
- Simulators
- Library
DART is an open-source C++17 library with Python bindings (dartpy) for kinematics, dynamics, and contact simulation of articulated rigid and soft bodies in robotics and animation.
Made by DART: Dynamic Animation and Robotics Toolkit.
Source on GitHub: github.com/dartsim/dart (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit a1845a7 (opens in a new tab).
Licenses
- Code
- BSD-2-Clause (opens in a new tab)
Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (BSD-2-Clause) at commit a1845a7 (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
What it does
- Computes articulated system motion in generalized coordinates using Featherstone's Articulated Body Algorithm.
- Provides access to mass matrix, Coriolis and gravity forces, Jacobians, and their derivatives.
- Handles LCP-based contact with Dantzig and PGS solvers, joint limits, closed kinematic loops, and soft bodies.
- Offers collision detection through FCL (default), Bullet, ODE, or DART's native detector.
- Loads models from URDF, SDF, SKEL, and MJCF (experimental) files.
- Includes hierarchical whole-body inverse kinematics and operational-space and stable-PD control examples.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit a1845a7.
Getting started
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- How to start
- The project's website (opens in a new tab)
Maintenance
- Status
- Active: a commit in the last 90 days
- Newest commit
- 16 Oct 2026 on main
- Latest release
- DART 6.20.0 (11 Oct 2026)
Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.
Links
Robots that can run 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.