kinematics_interface
- Software
- Robot arms and industry
- Library
A ROS 2 package providing a C++ kinematics interface so controllers can drive robots in Cartesian space, with KDL and Pinocchio-based implementations.
Made by ros-controls.
Source on GitHub: github.com/ros-controls/kinematics_interface (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 90958ce (opens in a new tab).
Licenses
- Code
- Apache-2.0 (opens in a new tab)
Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (Apache-2.0) at commit 90958ce (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
What it does
- Defines a kinematics interface that ROS 2 controllers use to command robots in Cartesian space.
- Includes a basic implementation of the interface based on KDL.
- Includes a Pinocchio-based plugin for high-performance kinematics on complex robots and large kinematic chains.
- The Pinocchio plugin supports Pinocchio features such as automatic differentiation and collision detection integration.
- The Pinocchio plugin uses damped least-squares Jacobian inversion for robust handling of singularities.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 90958ce.
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
- 4 Oct 2026 on master
- Latest release
- None published on GitHub
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.