pick_ik
- Software
- Robot arms and industry
- Library
An inverse kinematics solver plugin for MoveIt 2, reimplementing the bio_ik approach. PickNik has deprecated it and seeks a community maintainer.
Made by PickNik Robotics, United States (checked on github.com/PickNikRobotics (opens in a new tab)).
Source on GitHub: github.com/PickNikRobotics/pick_ik (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 7c97fe2 (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 7c97fe2 (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
What it does
- Reimplements the bio_ik memetic solver, combining a local gradient-descent optimizer with a global evolutionary optimizer.
- Supports custom cost functions so additional objectives can be prioritized beyond solving at a specific frame.
- Built-in cost functions cover joint displacement, joint centering, and avoiding joint limits.
- Reimplements the numeric gradient-descent solvers equivalent to bio_ik's gd, gd_r, and gd_c solvers.
- The number of threads for the global solver is fully configurable.
- PickNik no longer uses the solver or plans new features, providing only basic maintenance for existing users.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 7c97fe2.
Getting started
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- How to start
- The project's README (opens in a new tab)
Maintenance
- Status
- Active: a commit in the last 90 days
- Newest commit
- 19 Sept 2026 on main
- Latest release
- None published on GitHub
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.