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NOTE: We are still in progress of updating this to v2.0.0. Most text has been reviewed, but not yet all images. So rather trust the text than the images, for the time being.
Welcome to the Phobos Wiki!
Phobos is an open-source add-on for Blender which simplifies creating and editing robot models and environments to be used in different simulation frameworks (such as the MARS simulation or Gazebo). Specifically, Phobos allows the user to create URDF or SDF files as well as SMURF robot descriptions in a visual, interactive user interface, providing a number of import and export options. See the list of supported formats.
Creating adequate simulation models of a robot is a difficult task that especially in the world of open-source and research often comes down to editing complex custom description text files in cumbersome formats by hand. This is not only error-prone, slow and boring, it also forces the robotics researcher or enthusiast to give up any visual context and painstakingly re-iterate mechanical design using a text editor.
While there are some remedies for this problem such as macro languages for robot definition or plugins for CAD-software allowing to export the structure of a robot, none of these allow the user to intuitively create robot models from scratch or customize the models for use in specialized applications such as collision planning or simulation.
This is a gap that Phobos aims to fill and we hope that many users out there will find it useful for their needs.
This documentation is still far from extensive. There are probably a lot of difficulties for Blender beginners that we have overlooked and there are certainly features in Phobos that we have not covered at all or at least not comprehensively enough. We therefore appreciate if you contact us about issues you have with Phobos. Either the documentation might not be sufficient or you have stumbled upon a bug - both cases are something we would like to know.
Also, if you have the opinion something in the wiki should be more precise, less poorly written etc., feel free to help us with the documentation. There are always more use-cases, topics and examples to be covered!
Note that you can find the code documentation on our GitHub Page.
- Install Phobos.
- Learn how to configure Phobos.
- Read the introduction to Phobos and Blender.
- Watch the video tutorial.
- Read the walkthrough on how to build a robot.
- Check the FAQ for some special questions.
- Looking for something specific? Check the page index on the right side.
- Having issues? Check the troubleshooting section.
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