Robots in Grasshopper

🤖 + 🦗

A collection of plugins and software that can be used to control industrial robots with Grasshopper in Rhinoceros3D.

Compiled by Robin Godwyll

Work in Progress. Raise an Issue or pull request if a plugin is missing or information is incorrect.
Not all Plugins have been tested by me. Use at your own Risk.
The list tries to sort the plugins by accessibility (price, robot brands supported, open-source), It is not a ranking in functionality or quality.

Overview

NAME	PRICE	KUKA	ABB	UR	other robot brands	Operating systems*	Link
Robots	Free (open source)	✅	✅	✅	Staubli	Win MacOS	github
MACHINA	Free (open source)	✅	✅	✅	❌	Win	Food4Rhino github
Furobot	Free	✅	✅	✅	custom Robot creation inside gh	Win	Food4Rhino Website
HAL Robotics	£800/yr £60/yr (academic) Free trial	✅	✅	✅	❌	Win	Food4Rhino(old) Food4Rhino(new) Website
Axis	Free (open source)	❓	✅	❌	custom Robot creation inside gh	Win	github
Robot Components	Free (open source)	❌	✅	❌	❌	Win	github Food4Rhino Documentation
KUKA PRC	Free (limited) 450€/yr 95€/yr (Student)	✅	❌	❌	❌	Win	Food4Rhino Website
Taco ABB	Free	❌	✅	❌	❌	Win	Food4Rhino Website
Taco HIWIN	Free	❌	❌	❌	HIWIN	Win	Food4Rhino Facebook
RoboDK	Free trial 145€(Edu) 2995€(Pro)	✅	✅	✅	many others see here	Win + Others (standalone App)	Food4Rhino Website
Cobra (Easyrobot)	Free (open source)	KR6-10R900	❌	❌	❌	Win	Food4Rhino github
Robot Fabrication Design	Free	KR 120 R2500	❌	❌	❌	Win	Food4Rhino Website
Scorpion	Free (open source)	❌	❌	✅	❌	Win	Food4Rhino
RHINOROBOT 4	1800€ (commercial) 1170€ (30 seat education lab license)	✅	✅	✅	Staubli, Yaskawa, Fanuc, others	Win	Food4Rhino Website
Rapcam	150€/month Free trial	✅	✅	❌	Fanuc	Win	Food4Rhino Website
ROBOTS IO	£166 /yr (Edu) £1999 /yr (Pro)	✅	✅	✅	Fanuc	Win	Developer Website Forum Archived Website

* information according to Food4Rhino.com, some plugins might also work in Rhino/Grasshopper for Mac. Let me know if you are using one of the plugins on a mac and it works.

Details

Robots

Website: github.com/visose/Robots
Download: via github
Price: Free (Open source Plugin) Developed by: Vicente Soler
Robot brands : Kuka ABB UR Staubli

offline programming	command streaming	Visualisation	External axis support
✅	✅	✅	✅

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MACHINA

Website: github.com/RobotExMachina
Download: GH Plugin on Food4Rhino.com
Research Publications: Machina.NET: A Library for Programming [...] Industrial Robots
Price: Free (Open source) Framework written in C#
Developed by: Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo
Robot brands : Kuka (no command streaming) ABB UR

Description:
Machina is a .NET library for action-based real-time control of mechanical actuators. Plugins for Grasshopper and Revit can be used with an app called Machina-Bridge to stream commands directly to a robot.

"Or in more human terms, it allows you to talk to a robot and tell it what to do."

offline programming	command streaming	Visualisation	External axis support
✅	✅	❌ *	✅

* Visualisation: can be done externally for ABB Robots with ABB Robot Studio

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AxisArch - Axis

Website: github.com/AxisArch/Axis

Price: Free (Open source; written in C#)

Developed by: Ryan Hughes, Povl Filip Sonne-Frederiksen, axisarch.tech
Robot brands : ABB Kuka (not fully supported)

Description:
Axis is a plugin for Rhino/Grasshopper a 3D modeling and parametric design framework for designers and architects. It offers the following components:

• Main components such as Code Generator or Simulation.
• Connections and interactions with live controllers.
• Set Up which are secondary components to set settings such as speed and zone

offline programming	command streaming	Visualisation	External axis support
✅	✅	✅	❓

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HAL Robotics

Website: hal-robotics.com

Price:
- Professional: £800+ /yr
- Academic ( non commerical use): £60+ /yr

Developed by: HAL Robotics
Robot brands : Kuka ABB UR Staubli

offline programming	command streaming	Visualisation	External axis support
✅	✅	✅	❓

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KUKA PRC

Website:
Food4Rhino.com
robotsinarchitecture.org
Download: robotsinarchitecture.org
Support/Tutorials: Forum
Research Publications: Adaptive Industrial Robot Control for Designers
Price:
- Academic/Lab: 350€ /yr
- Evaluation: Free
Developed by: Robotsinarchitecture
Robot brands : Kuka

offline programming	command streaming	Visualisation	External axis support
✅	✅	✅	✅

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Scorpion

Website:
Food4Rhino.com
scorpion-robotics.org (offline, Archived)
Download: Food4Rhino.com
Research Publications: Automated Construction Using Adaptive Programing
Price: Free (open source Grasshopper component)
Developed by: Khaled Elashry - Vincent Huyghe - Ruairi Glynn
Robot brands : UR (Visualisation only for UR10)
Description:
Scorpion is an open source robotic controller for Industrial Robots currently in beta. Scorpion contains tools to control universal robots industrial robots, Including:
Easy generation of robotic programs from paths,
Inverse kinematic solver for universal robots,
Direct upload to the robots through TCP/IP,
End-effector Tools

offline programming	command streaming	Visualisation	External axis support
✅	✅	✅	❌

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Taco ABB

Website:
Food4Rhino.com
blickfeld7.com
Download: blickfeld7.com
Research Publications utilising this plugin:
Tool Path Generator for Artistic Drawing with Industrial Robot
Robotic Formwork in the MARS Pavilion
Robotic Fabrication Workflows for Environmentally Driven Facades
Price: Free
Developed by: blickfeld7
Robot brands : ABB
Description:
TACO-ABB is a free and user-friendly programming plugin for the simulation and control of ABB industrial robots directly within Grasshopper. Taco offers users to program and visualize ABB robots with parametrics.

offline programming	command streaming	Visualisation	External axis support
✅	✅	✅	❌

---

Taco HIWIN

Developed by: Shih-Yuan Wang, Yu-Ting Sheng, Florian Frank to be added

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RoboDK

Website: RobotDK doc Download: Food4Rhino.com Research Publications:
Price: RobotDK prices Description:

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Cobra (EasyRobot)

Developed by: Richardgolee
Download: Food4Rhino
Website: github
Description:
Cobra(EasyRobot) is a very simple robotic controller, now only support KUKA KR6-10R900 Robot. It could provide solution to most tasks and generate src file.

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Robotic Fabrication Design

Download: Food4Rhino.com Developed by: MXM-Architects to be added

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Furobot

Website: fabunion.github.io Download: Food4Rhino

Research Publications:
Price: Free Developed by: Fab-Union
Robot brands : Kuka ABB UR
Description:
FUROBOT is a robot programming platform developed by Fab-Union for the construction industry. The purpose of FUROBOT is to program on robot more easily,and convert the design into real object with little effort by using some technique packages.

offline programming	command streaming	Visualisation	External axis support
✅	✅	✅	✅

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Robot Components

to be added
Website:
Download:
Research Publications:
Price:
Developed by EDEK-UniKassel
Robot brands : ABB Description:

offline programming	command streaming	Visualisation	External axis support
✅	✅	✅	✅

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Rhinorobot 4

Website: www.kinematiq.net/fr/rhinorobot/
Download/Buy: www.kinematiq.net/boutique/)
Price: 1800€ (commercial), 1170€ (30 seat education lab license)
Developed by: Kinematiq SAS
Robot brands : Kuka ABB UR Staubli Yaskawa
Description:
RhinoRobot is a complete, affordable, and easy off-line programming and simulation plugin for Rhinoceros 3D, to handle all types of applications on industrial robots.

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Rapcam

Website:
rapcam.eu (offline, archived)
Food4Rhino.com
Developer Website: raptech.io

The Grasshopper Plugin Rapcam appears to be discontinued by the developers. Youtube videos describing its functionality can still be found here.
The company now offers a standalone software for robotic 3D-printing with concrete which can be found here.

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ROBOTS IO

Website:
Developer Website: robofold.com
robots.io (offline, archived)

Description:

ROBOTS IO seems to be discontinued by the developer. The website at robots.io is offline. You can find an archived version of the website here. Documentation of the plugin can be found in this PDF.