Live from a backyard fishpond, here is the GEMS Erasmus+ robot. I found this device while taking a robotics MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) on edX. GEMS stands for “Graceful Equalizing of Mechatronics Students,” a program funded by the European Union to improve knowledge of robotics among younger students. More on the project is on the GEMS Erasmus+ about page.
The two robots in the video are now in the ARMOR Robot Gallery:
- GEMS Mobile Robot, the wheeled robot
- GEMS Articulated Robot, the articulated robot
What makes this one unusual is the source. The GitHub repositories provide geometry in FreeCAD project format, but not the URDF files that ARMOR loads natively. So a Python routine, built in a skill-builder session with Claude, exports the meshes from the FreeCAD source and compiles the kinematics into a clean URDF. Claude then helped create the gallery entries.
Key Points
- Two educational robots from the EU-funded GEMS Erasmus+ project, a wheeled robot and an articulated one
- The upstream repositories ship FreeCAD geometry only, with no URDF
- An automated Python routine exports the meshes and compiles the kinematics into a URDF
- Both robots are live in the Robot Gallery and open in ARMOR with one tap
- More indie and educational robots are planned for the gallery, and suggestions are welcome
See Robot Gallery & Deep Links for how the one-tap import works, and Finding URDF Files for what to do when a robot has no URDF of its own.