Overview

This is an example data-loader plugin that lets you view URDF files. It uses the external data loader mechanism to add this capability to the Rerun viewer without modifying the viewer itself.

This example is written in Python, and uses urdf_parser_py to read the files. ROS package-relative paths support both ROS 1 and ROS 2-based resolving.

Installing the plug-in

The repository has detailed installation instruction. In a nutshell, the easiest is to use pipx:

pipx install git+https://github.com/rerun-io/rerun-loader-python-example-urdf.git
pipx ensurepath

Try it out

To try the plug-in, first download the provided example URDF:

curl -OL https://github.com/rerun-io/rerun-loader-python-example-urdf/raw/main/example.urdf

Then you can open the viewer and open the file using drag-and-drop or the open dialog, or you can open it directly from the terminal:

rerun example.urdf