diff --git a/cmake/SearchForStuff.cmake b/cmake/SearchForStuff.cmake
index 4c0311789..a6c66195d 100644
--- a/cmake/SearchForStuff.cmake
+++ b/cmake/SearchForStuff.cmake
@@ -31,7 +31,13 @@ if (NOT DEFINED USE_INTERNAL_URDF OR NOT USE_INTERNAL_URDF)
   pkg_check_modules(URDF urdfdom>=1.0)
 
   if (NOT URDF_FOUND)
-    if (NOT DEFINED USE_INTERNAL_URDF)
+    find_package(urdfdom)
+    if (urdfdom_FOUND)
+      set(URDF_INCLUDE_DIRS ${urdfdom_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+      # ${urdfdom_LIBRARIES} already contains absolute library filenames
+      set(URDF_LIBRARY_DIRS "")
+      set(URDF_LIBRARIES ${urdfdom_LIBRARIES})
+    elseif (NOT DEFINED USE_INTERNAL_URDF)
       message(STATUS "Couldn't find urdfdom >= 1.0, using internal copy")
       set(USE_INTERNAL_URDF true)
     else()