The data package

The toolbox contains executable code, mostly Python but some C code for dynamics, and data such as STL meshes, URDF files, and some datasets.

The data is getting close to 200MB compared to under 20MB for the code. PyPI has a limit on the total amount of data a package can have, the bigger each release of a package is, the few versions can be held at any one time. Unlike the code, the data doesn't change much, but it adds baggage to every PyPI release.

For this reason the data part of the Toolbox is now packaged and distributed separately. You don't need to explicitly install the data package, since it is a dependency of RTB and will automatically installed when you when you install RTB-P.

Files included

Folder	Purpose
data	miscellaneous STL files and data sets
meshes	STL mesh models for DH robots
xacro	URDF/xacro models for URDF robots

Accessing files in the data package

pip will install the package at some place of its choosing in your filesystem, but the path to any of the files can be easily found:

from roboticstoolbox.tools.data import path_to_datafile

path = path_to_datafile("xacro/franka_description/robots/frankie_arm_hand.urdf.xacro")

Data files, such as those that support examples in the RVC book, can be similarly located and loaded

from roboticstoolbox.tools.data import load mat

m = loadmat("data/house.mat")

which finds and parses a MATLAB style .mat file, then returns its value.