Unity Application URDF Import at Runtime

[jckenny59]

• [x] I am at the right place and my issue is directly related to ROS#. General technical questions I would post e.g. at ROS Answers or Stack Overflow. For library-specific questions, I would look for help in the corresponding library forums.
• [x] I have thoroughly read the Contributing Guideline and writing this issue is the right thing to do in my case.

---

I have a question!

• [x] I searched the Wiki, open and closed issues for an answer. I tried my best to find the answer by myself without success. I believe that the discussion we will have on this issue, and the solutions we might find, will help me, and likely other community members who have a similar problem.

Here is my question:

Hello, I have a question. I am working on an augmented reality application for assisting in the review, request, and planning of robotic trajectories for complex spatial assemblies in realtime. The target platform for this application is both ios & android build platforms. The current application works by utilizing the URDF Importer and using the robots as prefab unity assets. However, the aim of the application is to work with any robot and attached end effector (for any custom placement, gripping, & robotic set up). In order to do so, we were hoping to utilize the URDF Importer at runtime from each device. However, in the current ROS# implementation the functionalities, and classes associated with the URDF Importer are only accessible from the editor.

This question is quite general, and I am still quite new to the usage of ROS# inside of Unity. However, would it be possible to adjust the functionalities of the URDF importer to read the robot description at runtime of the application? From my understanding, it would primarily be adjusting the URDFAssetPath to a runtime accessible location such as the Application.persistentDataPath. However, I am not sure if there is something else that I am missing or if this would even be possible?

Again, I apologize for the very general question, but I have been reviewing the Wiki, ROS Answers, and Stack Overflow. And I have not found something related to this request. Thank you very much, and I apologize for the lengthy questions.

---

I have a feature request!

I want to do this:

• URDF Import at Runtime

For being able to do it, I wish ROS# had the following feature:

• Adjust URDFAssetPath to accessible location at runtime.

[MartinBischoff]

Hi @jckenny59 ! Thanks for this question. Importing CAD Data at runtime is quite more complex than importing them in Editor mode. There exist special Unity packages which provide additional CAD-runtime functionalities e.g. this. Adding these packages to ROS# in general would impose additional restrictions and dependencies. Please feel free to make these adjustments in your fork.