URDF, Can i make the course with C++?

[AlfMachine]

Hi, i’m making the URDF course and i don’t know nothing about Python yet. My doubt is can i make it with C++?

[rzegers]

Hello @AlfMachine,

the main focus of the course is to teach URDF files and also XACRO files which are XML-based formats. I personally think that XML files are fairly easy to understand even if you have no previous experience with it. Having a high-level sense of how XML files work (for instance if you know HTML) helps, though.

The python code that is present in the course is more of an side utility rather than integrated into robot modeling itself. For instance there is an inertia calculator in python that is provided to simplify the calculation of the moment of inertia for uniformly shaped, rigid bodies. The code is provided so you don’t need to program in python yourself. Additionally there is a ROS node written in python that is used to move the robot that you model using URDF/XACRO. The code for this node is provided so you are not required to program it yourself.

So the python requirement is there if you want to understand what exactly each line of those utility programs do. In the course you are not required to write a python program yourself. Therefore I think that if you can read python then you can do the course and still understand how robot modelling using URDF and XACRO files works.

Hope this helps,

Roberto

[AlfMachine]

As you say XML it’s not a big problem ,i’m familiar with markup languages, but i didn’t know how deep is the usage of python in this course that’s why i’m asking.

Thanks