Rendering¶

Visualization and rendering utilities for soft robot systems.

The rendering module provides a class-based architecture for visualizing soft robots. All renderers inherit from a common base class BaseSoftRobotRenderer which provides cached forward kinematics and a unified interface.

Core renderer gallery¶

The Matplotlib, Open3D, and Viser samples show the same upright tapered GVS tentacle with SceneConfig.studio() (the neutral studio variant), a pastel purple backbone and a dark base. OpenCV shows a two-link planar PCS counterpart with the same lengths and prescribed bending coordinates. Matplotlib uses a white background and its standard axes, ignoring scene appearance presets. OpenCV also uses a white background, with colored robot geometry and no scene lighting or ground scenery.

The preset gallery compares all six scene presets in Open3D and Viser. These examples select neutral studio explicitly; the renderer-wide default is the technical preset.

Matplotlib

Polished static figures and notebook-friendly inspection for planar and spatial robots.

Matplotlib renderer details
Open3D

Interactive spatial inspection with geometry, camera control, and offline frame or video capture.

Open3D renderer details
Viser

Browser-based 3D visualization for live demos, playback, and multi-robot scenes.

Viser renderer details
OpenCV Planar

Lightweight real-time planar frames and fast video export.

OpenCV Planar renderer details

Reproduce these images with examples/rendering/backend_gallery.py --backend followed by matplotlib, open3d, viser or opencv.

System-specific renderer designs are documented alongside their robots: the Planar HSA OpenCV renderer, I-SUPPORT Viser renderer, and UMArm Viser renderer.

Choosing a Renderer¶

Renderer	Best For	Strengths	Limitations
`MatplotlibRenderer`	Static plots, notebooks, debugging	Works with any robot, easy to embed	Limited interactivity, slower animations
`Open3DRenderer`	Interactive 3D inspection	Rich camera controls, headless capture	Requires Open3D, 3D only
`ViserRenderer`	Live demos, web-based visualization	Browser UI, live streaming, multi-robot	Requires web server, 3D only
`OpenCVPlanarRenderer`	Fast 2D animations, video export	Lightweight, fast output	Planar robots only
`OpenCVPlanarHSARenderer`	PlanarHSA-specific visuals	HSA-specific geometry	PlanarHSA only

Documentation¶

Renderer API ¶

Complete API reference for all renderer classes:

BaseSoftRobotRenderer - Abstract base class
MatplotlibRenderer - Matplotlib-based visualization
Open3DRenderer - Open3D-based 3D visualization
ViserRenderer - Web-based visualization
OpenCVPlanarRenderer - OpenCV-based 2D visualization
OpenCVPlanarHSARenderer - HSA-specific visualization

Shared Configuration ¶

Settings shared by multiple renderer backends:

RendererConfig - Scene, camera, colors, geometry and output settings
Scene presets, physical light units and backend approximations
CameraConfig - Camera positioning and field of view
Robot base, base-plate, and ground-plane behavior
Multi-robot layouts and spacing
Recording and video encoding
RendererColorConfig - Color configuration hierarchy
BackboneColorConfig - Backbone-specific colors
Built-in color palettes and themes

Quick Start¶

All renderers accept a robot model at construction and expose a single-frame entry point. For example:

from soromox.rendering import RendererConfig, GeometryConfig, MatplotlibRenderer

renderer = MatplotlibRenderer(robot, config=RendererConfig(geometry=GeometryConfig(num_points=50)))
renderer.show(q)

Choose another backend from the table above, then follow its API reference for interactive playback, live mode, or video capture.