Describing Robots from Design to Learning: Towards an Interactive Lifecycle Representation of Robots

The robot development process is divided into several stages, which create barriers to the exchange of information between these different stages. We advocate for an interactive lifecycle representation, extending from robot morphology design to learning, and introduce the role of robot description formats in facilitating information transfer throughout this pipeline. We analyzed the relationship between design and simulation, enabling us to employ robot process automation methods for transferring information from the design phase to the learning phase in simulation. As part of this effort, we have developed an open-source plugin called ACDC4Robot for Fusion 360, which automates this process and transforms CAD software into a user-friendly graphical interface for creating and editing robot description formats to solve the Design2Sim problem. Additionally, we offer an out-of-the-box robot model library to streamline and reduce repetitive tasks. All codes are hosted open-source. (https://github.com/bionicdl-sustech/ACDC4Robot)