Installation

To install RoBits, use pip:

pip install 'robits[all]'

You can use a Conda environment or a virtual environment. Next, create a configuration folder and export the environment variable ROBITS_CONFIG_DIR that points to the folder, e.g. with

mkdir $HOME/robits_user_config
# export the environment variable to your .bashrc
echo "export ROBITS_CONFIG_DIR=$HOME/robits_user_config" >> $HOME/.bashrc

See the Configuration section for more details. If you don’t want to install all options you can choose one of the following installation options. Currently, the following options are available:

  • real: Includes dependencies for the Franka Panda, Robotiq gripper, and Realsense cameras.

  • sim: Includes dependencies for simulation.

  • remote: Includes dependencies to connect via running instances over network

  • ur: Includes dependencies for the UR robots

  • xarm: Includes dependencies for the xArm robots

  • dev: Includes dependencies for development

  • usd: To export a dataset to Blender/IsaacLab and render it USD

  • audio Includes dependencies for audio/speech modules

Using uv

If you use uv, you can create and sync the environment from pyproject.toml and run the CLI without activating a shell manually.

# Sync the environment with simulation extras
uv sync --extra sim

# Show CLI help through uv
uv run rb --help

# Move the simulated robot to its home position
uv run rb move home --robot-name robot_panda_sim

Development

For development, you can install RoBits from source:

git clone https://github.com/markusgrotz/robits.git
cd robits
pip install -e '.[all,dev]'

Conda environment

  1. Install conda if not already available. You can use the installer script scripts/40_install_miniconda.sh.

  2. Create a new conda environment and install other dependencies.

    conda create -n robits python=3.10
# the following dependencies are necessary if you are using a panda robot
conda install pybind11 poco=1.11.0  gcc make cmake gxx=9.5.0 -c conda-forge

  3. Install RoBits with pip install robits[all]. See section Installation or Development for details.

  4. Setup a configuration folder and export the environment variable ROBITS_CONFIG_DIR that points to the folder, e.g. with

    mkdir $HOME/robits_user_config
# export the environment variable to your .bashrc
echo "export ROBITS_CONFIG_DIR=$HOME/robits_user_config" >> $HOME/.bashrc