Get Visual Mesh Transforms

SUMMARY

Get Visual Mesh Transforms is the rendering-ready version of Get Link Transforms: link frames composed with the URDF <visual><origin> mesh offset, filtered to only the links that actually have a visual mesh.

UNITS

Returns a dict of mesh name → 4×4 SE(3) homogeneous transform in meters (translation column).

The Skill

transforms = robot.get_visual_mesh_transforms()

The Code

"""
Read per-link visual mesh world transforms for a manipulator.

Supports Universal Robots (UR), Epson, and virtual.

Usage:
    python get_visual_mesh_transforms.py
"""

from loguru import logger

from telekinesis.synapse.robots.manipulators import universal_robots
from telekinesis.synapse import utils


def main():
    """Read every link's visual-mesh world transform at the current joint configuration."""

    #===================== Create Robot ==========================================
    robot = universal_robots.UniversalRobotsUR10E(name='UR10e')

    # ==================== Run Skill ============================================
    transforms = robot.get_visual_mesh_transforms()
    logger.info(f"Number of links with visual meshes: {len(transforms)}")

    # Convert each 4x4 transformation matrix to a pose [x, y, z, rx, ry, rz] (m, deg)
    for name, T in transforms.items():
        pose = utils.transformation_matrix_to_pose(T, rot_type="deg")
        logger.success(f"{name}: pose [m, deg] = {pose}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Parameter Configuration

This skill takes no input parameters.

Returns

Type	Description
dict[str, np.ndarray]	{link_name: world_T_visual_mesh} - each value is a 4×4 homogeneous transform at which the corresponding visual mesh should be rendered. Links without a usable mesh are omitted.

Raises

Exception	Condition
RuntimeError	The robot's state has not been initialized (the derived class did not call _initialize_state_and_publishers())
ImportError	trimesh is not installed, surfaced from the underlying get_visual_meshes_data() call on the first invocation only (subsequent calls hit the cache)

Where to Use the Skill

• Visualization - Render the robot's URDF visual meshes at the correct world poses in any 3D visualizer. Pair with Get Visual Meshes Data for the raw vertex / triangle arrays.
• Digital twin - Stream live mesh poses to a remote viewer for monitoring or teleoperation.
• Synthetic data generation - Drive an offline renderer at known robot configurations.

When Not to Use the Skill

• You only need link frames - call Get Link Transforms to skip the mesh-origin composition and keep every frame (including ones without a visual).