Robot Catalog

Robot Catalog#

Use the robot catalog to discover installed configurations before choosing a robot for a Gym task, workspace analysis, or dual-arm composition. The main embodichain distribution includes the official embodichain_robots package.

embodichain list-robot
python -m embodichain list-robot
embodichain list-robot --help

Listing reads catalog metadata without importing robot implementations, starting simulation, or downloading assets. See List Robots for the table columns.

Read the Control Summary#

Control DOF counts unique independent joints in the default control parts. The count excludes mimic followers and counts joints shared by groups such as dual_arm and full_body once. It describes the configured control groups; other movable joints in the asset can be outside those groups.

Control Parts uses independent-plus-mimic notation. For example, eef (1+1m) describes a two-joint gripper with one independent joint and one follower. Official presets use eef for a single arm and left_eef / right_eef for a dual arm. Custom control-part names remain valid.

Mimic Joints lists follower names from the default URDF, including passive followers outside the control parts. W1’s BrainCo PIP joints are an example: they appear in this column while each hand’s six selected control joints are independent. The displayed follower count therefore need not equal the sum of the m counts in the control parts.

A * marks the default variant. - means that a provider has not supplied a summary, and None in the mimic column means a known absence of followers. When a provider omits per-part mimic membership, part counts are marked total instead of being presented as independent counts.

The official catalog currently groups configurations into these families:

Robot ID	Independent control DOF	Variant coverage
`AlohaMini`	15	Complete Aloha Mini 2 Pro default control groups
`CobotMagic`	14	Default dual six-joint arms and two independent gripper commands
`DexforceW1`	20, 22, or 32	Three body releases and six hand profiles per release
`DualArmRobot`	12 or 16	Six UR bases or a pair of Franka Panda arms with grippers
`FrankaPanda`	8	Seven arm joints and one independent gripper command
`TianjiMarvin`	16	Default dual seven-joint arms with grippers
`URRobot`	6	`ur3`, `ur3e`, `ur5`, `ur5e`, `ur10`, and `ur10e`

These summaries describe catalog defaults. Configuration overrides can change the control groups or attached end effectors. See Supported Robots for the individual robot configurations and their additional options.

Select a Variant#

Use the Robot ID to resolve a configuration and supply its variant fields as overrides. UR model IDs are also registered individually, even though their display rows are grouped under URRobot:

from embodichain.robot_registry import list_robot_cfgs, resolve_robot_cfg

robot_ids = list_robot_cfgs()
ur5_cfg = resolve_robot_cfg("URRobot", {"robot_type": "ur5"})
ur5_preset_cfg = resolve_robot_cfg("ur5")

list_robot_cfgs() returns all registered IDs, including the six UR presets. resolve_robot_cfg() imports and constructs the selected configuration, so asset resolution and robot dependencies can be required at that point. The same registered IDs are accepted by Gym’s robot.class_type, workspace analysis’s --robot, and dual-arm composition’s base_robot.

Dual-arm Bases#

The default base is ur10. Every listed UR base contributes six independent arm joints per side, giving 12 control DOFs. A FrankaPanda base contributes seven arm joints and one independent gripper command per side, giving 16 control DOFs plus two mimic followers. The overlapping dual_arm group is counted once.

panda_pair_cfg = resolve_robot_cfg(
    "DualArmRobot", {"base_robot": "FrankaPanda"}
)

See Dual-Arm Composition for mounts and the base-robot contract.

W1 Body and Hand Profiles#

W1 advertises body releases v021, v022, and v025. Each release has six hand profiles, for 18 combinations. Equivalent body releases share a display row while retaining their version labels and hand-specific DOFs.

Hand profile	Left hand	Right hand	Control DOF
`BrainCo`	`BRAINCO_HAND`	`BRAINCO_HAND`	32
`DH_PGC`	`DH_PGC_GRIPPER`	`DH_PGC_GRIPPER`	22
`DH_PGC_M`	`DH_PGC_GRIPPER_M`	`DH_PGC_GRIPPER_M`	22
`L=DH_PGC,R=DH_PGC_M`	`DH_PGC_GRIPPER`	`DH_PGC_GRIPPER_M`	22
`L=DH_PGC_M,R=DH_PGC`	`DH_PGC_GRIPPER_M`	`DH_PGC_GRIPPER`	22
`bare`	No default end effector	No default end effector	20

The default is v021/BrainCo. Dexterous-hand/two-finger-gripper mixtures are omitted from the advertised profiles. Body and hand release versions are independent: all registered hand brands currently use hand revision v021, including with body v022 or v025.

Choose a displayed profile through version, hand_types, and with_default_eef; labels such as v025/DH_PGC describe a profile rather than an additional registered robot ID:

w1_gripper_cfg = resolve_robot_cfg(
    "DexforceW1",
    {
        "version": "v025",
        "hand_types": {
            "left": "DH_PGC_GRIPPER",
            "right": "DH_PGC_GRIPPER",
        },
        "hand_versions": {"left": "v021", "right": "v021"},
    },
)
w1_bare_cfg = resolve_robot_cfg(
    "DexforceW1", {"version": "v025", "with_default_eef": False}
)

See Dexforce W1 for hardware releases and calibration.

Register a Third-party Catalog#

An installed package exposes a lightweight mapping through an embodichain.robots entry point:

[project.entry-points."embodichain.robots"]
acme = "acme_robots.catalog:ROBOTS"

# acme_robots/catalog.py
ROBOTS = {
    "acme.arm": {
        "class_path": "acme_robots.arm:ArmCfg",
        "defaults": {"variant": "standard"},
        "dof": 6,
        "control_parts": {"arm": 6},
        "mimic_joints": {},
        "control_part_mimics": {},
        "supports_dual_arm": True,
    },
}

Keep the catalog module and package initializer free of robot implementation imports. class_path is required, and the selected class must implement the RobotCfg.from_dict() contract. Defaults and display metadata are optional. In catalog metadata, control_parts maps names to raw joint counts; RobotCfg.control_parts itself maps names to joint patterns. mimic_joints maps followers to leaders, and control_part_mimics lists each part’s followers. Set supports_dual_arm=True only for a compatible single-arm base that satisfies the assembly contract.

Robot IDs must be unique across installed catalogs. Use a vendor prefix for third-party IDs; duplicate IDs produce a CLI error. Discovery is cached for the process lifetime, so refresh the package’s installation metadata and restart the process after changing an entry point. See Adding a New Robot for the configuration implementation checklist.

Import and Selector Migration#

Import concrete presets from embodichain_robots. Generic dual-arm APIs remain in the core:

from embodichain_robots import FrankaPandaCfg, URRobotCfg
from embodichain.lab.sim.robots import DualArmRobotCfg, build_dual_arm_cfg
from embodichain.lab.sim.robots.dual_arm import resolve_mounts

Former concrete modules and exports under embodichain.lab.sim.robots have been removed. Select robots by exact registered IDs such as FrankaPanda, CobotMagic, URRobot, and ur5. Historical aliases such as franka, franka_panda, cobotmagic, and ur, and unregistered Cfg-suffixed IDs are no longer accepted. This does not change custom robot UIDs or asset joint names.

See Robot catalogs and configurations for the resolver API and canonical configuration imports.