Awesome Robotics
A curated list of robotics frameworks, simulators, tools, and platforms. 170+ tools across 23 categories.
⚠️ = aging (6-12 months since last commit) — may still work but watch for staleness.
ROS 2 is the production-ready successor to ROS 1 — real-time support, DDS communication, better security.
Tool
Stars
Description
ROS 2 4k
Robot middleware — real-time, DDS, multi-platform.
Navigation2 3k
Path planning, obstacle avoidance, behavior trees.
MoveIt 2 3k
Motion planning for robotic arms.
Foxglove 2k
Robotics observability and visualization platform.
micro-ROS 1k
ROS 2 on microcontrollers (ESP32, STM32).
ros2_control 1k
Hardware abstraction and real-time control.
ROS Bridge 1k
WebSocket bridge — connect web/mobile apps to robots.
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🎮 Simulation & Physics Engines
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
Genesis 24k
Python
Generative physics platform for embodied AI research.
PyBullet 13k
C++/Python
Real-time physics engine, widely used in RL.
MuJoCo 8k
C
DeepMind's physics engine — the standard for robot RL.
Isaac Lab 3k
Python
NVIDIA's framework for robot learning at GPU scale.
Webots 3k
C++
Robot simulator with realistic physics and 3D rendering.
Drake 3k
C++/Python
MIT — planning, control, and verification toolkit.
Gazebo 1k
C++
Standard ROS simulator with accurate physics and sensors.
NVIDIA Isaac Sim -
Python
GPU-accelerated sim with photorealistic rendering.
SAPIEN 1k
Python
Manipulation sim for articulated objects.
CoppeliaSim 1k
C++
Versatile robot simulator (formerly V-REP).
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🧭 Motion Planning & Navigation
Also see: MoveIt 2 and Navigation2 in ROS 2.
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
OMPL 1k
C++
Sampling-based planners (RRT, PRM, etc.).
CuRobo 1k
Python
NVIDIA CUDA-accelerated planning — 1000x faster than OMPL.
Moveit Pro 200
C++
Commercial MoveIt wrapper with behavior trees and web UI.
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👁️ Computer Vision & Perception
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
OpenCV 80k
C++/Python
Foundational computer vision library.
Segment Anything 50k
Python
Meta's zero-shot segmentation — segment any object.
YOLOv8/11 38k
Python
Real-time detection, segmentation, and pose estimation.
Open3D 12k
C++/Python
3D point cloud processing, RGBD, visualization.
PCL 10k
C++
Point clouds — filtering, segmentation, registration.
Grounded SAM 5k
Python
Open-set detection + segmentation for robot perception.
DepthAnything 4k
Python
Monocular depth estimation for any image.
FoundationPose 2k
Python
NVIDIA 6DoF pose estimation without CAD models.
ZED SDK 1k
C++/Python
Stereo camera SDK — depth, tracking, spatial mapping.
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Tool
Stars
Language
Description
openpilot 51k
Python
comma.ai driver assist for 275+ car models.
Apollo 26k
C++
Baidu's autonomous driving platform.
CARLA 11k
C++
Autonomous driving simulator.
Autoware 9k
C++
Full-stack autonomous driving on ROS 2.
Lanelet2 1k
C++
HD map framework for autonomous driving.
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Tool
Stars
Language
Description
3D Gaussian Splatting 15k
Python/CUDA
Real-time radiance field rendering — next-gen mapping.
Nerfstudio 10k
Python
NeRF-based 3D reconstruction for scene understanding.
ORB-SLAM3 7k
C++
Visual/visual-inertial/multi-map SLAM (mono, stereo, RGBD).
Cartographer 7k
C++
Google's real-time 2D and 3D SLAM. ⚠️
LIO-SAM 4k
C++
Tightly-coupled LiDAR inertial odometry.
GTSAM 3k
C++
Factor graph optimization for SLAM and SFM.
RTAB-Map 3k
C++
RGB-D, Stereo, and LiDAR SLAM with real-time loop closure.
FAST-LIO2 3k
C++
Fast direct LiDAR-inertial odometry from HKU.
KISS-ICP 2k
C++/Python
Minimal, robust LiDAR odometry.
OpenVSLAM 2k
C++
Visual SLAM supporting any camera model.
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Also see: LeRobot in Foundation Models, Datasets & Benchmarks for training data.
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
Stable Baselines3 9k
Python
RL algorithms (PPO, SAC, TD3, etc.).
Gymnasium 7k
Python
Standard API for RL environments (successor to OpenAI Gym).
Robosuite 2k
Python
Manipulation benchmark with MuJoCo backend.
ManiSkill 1k
Python
GPU-parallelized manipulation benchmark on SAPIEN.
robomimic 1k
Python
Imitation learning for robot manipulation.
rl_games 1k
Python
RL framework designed for GPU sim environments.
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🦾 Manipulation & Grasping
Also see: MoveIt 2 in ROS 2, CuRobo in Motion Planning.
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
GraspNet 1k
Python
6-DoF grasp detection on point clouds.
AnyGrasp 1k
Python
Grasp detection for any object in dense clutter.
Contact-GraspNet 1k
Python
NVIDIA 6-DoF grasps conditioned on contact regions.
Dex-Net 1k
Python
Deep learning grasp quality for bin-picking.
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Tool
Stars
Language
Description
ArduPilot 12k
C++
Most versatile autopilot — planes, copters, rovers, subs.
PX4 9k
C++
Flight controller for drones and VTOL.
MAVLink 3k
C
Lightweight drone-to-ground messaging protocol.
QGroundControl 3k
C++
Cross-platform ground control station.
MAVROS 1k
C++
MAVLink driver for ROS — connect to PX4/ArduPilot.
Aerostack2 200
C++
ROS 2 framework for autonomous aerial robots.
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🦿 Humanoid & Legged Robots
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
Pinocchio 2k
C++/Python
Fast rigid-body dynamics and kinematics for humanoids.
MuJoCo MPC 1k
C++
DeepMind's model-predictive control for locomotion.
Crocoddyl 1k
C++/Python
Optimal control for multi-contact locomotion.
legged_control 1k
C++
Nonlinear MPC for quadrupeds using OCS2.
MIT Cheetah Software 1k
C++
Mini Cheetah quadruped control.
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⚙️ Robot Control & Dynamics
Also see: Pinocchio and Crocoddyl in Humanoid & Legged, ros2_control in ROS 2.
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
Casadi 2k
C++/Python
Nonlinear optimization and algorithmic differentiation for MPC.
control-toolbox 1k
C++
ETH Zurich — optimal control and estimation.
RBDL 500
C++
Rigid Body Dynamics — forward/inverse dynamics.
Orocos KDL 300
C++
Kinematics and dynamics library for ROS.
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🧩 Foundation Models for Robotics Using LLMs and VLMs to make robots understand language, plan, and reason.
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
LeRobot 8k
Python
Hugging Face's platform for real-world robot learning with shared datasets.
Octo 1k
Python
Generalist robot policy trained on Open X-Embodiment.
VoxPoser 400
Python
Composable 3D value maps from LLMs for manipulation.
RoboGen 300
Python
LLM-driven automated robot skill generation.
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📡 Robot Communication & Middleware
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
gRPC 42k
Multi
RPC framework for robot-cloud communication.
ZeroMQ 10k
C
Async messaging library for robot systems.
Eclipse Zenoh 2k
Rust
Pub/sub protocol emerging as ROS 2 middleware alternative.
ROS 2 DDS 200
C++
ROS 2 middleware using Fast-RTPS.
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🔧 Robot Description & URDF
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
MuJoCo 8k
XML
MJCF format for robot models and environments.
USD (Universal Scene) 6k
C++
Pixar's scene description — used by NVIDIA Isaac Sim.
MuJoCo Menagerie 2k
XML
Curated robot models (UR5, Franka, Unitree, etc.).
xacro 200
Python
XML macro language for URDF.
robot_state_publisher 200
C++
Publishes robot transforms from URDF.
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🏗️ Hardware Platforms & Kits
Platform
Type
Description
Open Manipulator Arm
ROBOTIS robotic arm with ROS 2 support.
TurtleBot Mobile
Standard ROS learning platform — affordable mobile robot.
Unitree Go2 Quadruped
Affordable quadruped with ROS 2 SDK.
SO-100/SO-ARM Arm
Low-cost robot arm for research and education.
Franka Emika Arm
Research-grade 7-DoF arm with torque control.
Hello Robot Stretch Mobile Manipulator
Affordable mobile manipulator for home robotics.
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📐 Kinematics & Calibration
Also see: Pinocchio in Humanoid & Legged.
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
Kalibr 4k
C++
Multi-camera and camera-IMU calibration from ETH Zurich.
IKFast 1k
C++
Analytical inverse kinematics solver (via OpenRAVE). ⚠️
ikpy 600
Python
Pure Python inverse kinematics — great for prototyping.
easy_handeye 600
Python
Hand-eye calibration for robot arms.
KDL 300
C++
Orocos kinematics and dynamics for ROS.
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🗣️ Human-Robot Interaction
Also see: ROS Bridge for web/mobile robot control.
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
Gradio 37k
Python
Quick web UIs for robot demos and teleoperation.
SayCan -
Python
Google's LLM-based robot task grounding.
RViz2 300
C++
3D visualization for ROS 2.
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🕹️ Teleoperation & Digital Twins VR teleoperation is the primary way to collect robot demonstration data.
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
Open TeleVision 1k
Python
Immersive VR teleoperation for bimanual dexterous control.
UMI 1k
Python
Stanford's manipulation interface for scalable data collection.
GELLO 500
Python
Low-cost teleoperation with 3D-printed replicas.
Dexterous Teleop 400
Python
Hand motion retargeting for dexterous robot teleop.
NVIDIA Omniverse -
Python
Digital twin platform for robot sim and remote operation.
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🐝 Multi-Robot & Swarm Systems
Tool
Stars
Language
Description
Open-RMF 1k
C++
Robot Fleet Management for multi-robot coordination.
Crazyswarm2 300
Python
ROS 2 framework for Crazyflie nano-drone swarms.
ARGoS 200
C++
Multi-robot simulator — 10,000+ robots.
MAPF 200
C++
Multi-Agent Path Finding with conflict-based search.
Buzz 200
C
Programming language for robot swarms.
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☁️ Cloud Robotics Platforms
Platform
Type
Description
NVIDIA Isaac Sim Cloud Sim
GPU-accelerated sim with synthetic data gen.
AWS RoboMaker Cloud
ROS-based cloud robotics with simulation and fleet management.
Foxglove SaaS
Cloud robot data visualization and analytics.
Formant SaaS
Fleet management, teleoperation, and observability.
Freedom Robotics SaaS
Robot monitoring, control, and analytics.
InOrbit SaaS
Robot operations with fleet management.
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Dataset
Scale
Description
Open X-Embodiment 1M+ episodes
DeepMind's cross-robot manipulation dataset from 22 labs.
DROID 76k demos
In-the-wild robot manipulation across 564 scenes.
BridgeData V2 60k demos
Robot manipulation dataset from Berkeley.
RoboNet 15M frames
Multi-robot video for visual foresight.
CALVIN -
Language-conditioned long-horizon manipulation benchmark.
RLBench 100 tasks
Benchmark for robot learning with vision.
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🪦 Deprecated Tools Graveyard
Dead Tool
Why
Use Instead
ROS 1 (Noetic)
EOL May 2025
ROS 2 (Humble/Jazzy/Rolling).
Gazebo Classic
End of life
Gazebo Sim (gz-sim).
OpenAI Gym
Deprecated
Gymnasium (Farama Foundation).
AirSim
Archived by Microsoft Jan 2024
CARLA, Isaac Sim, Gazebo.
OpenRAVE
Unmaintained since 2022
MoveIt 2, Drake.
PyRobot
Meta archived, last update 2021
LeRobot, ROS 2.
V-REP
Renamed
CoppeliaSim.
Stage (2D sim)
Unmaintained since 2019
Gazebo.
Player/Stage
Unmaintained since 2016
ROS 2 + Gazebo.
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List
Description
awesome-ai 400+ AI APIs, tools, frameworks, and platforms.
awesome-scrapers Scrapers, crawlers, and data extraction tools.
awesome-web3-ai Web3 x AI tools, agent frameworks, and protocols.
Contributions welcome! Please read the contribution guidelines first.
Add tools you've actually used or evaluated
Include star count and language where applicable
Note if a tool is unmaintained (last commit >1 year ago)
Commercial tools/services are fine but must be clearly labeled
To the extent possible under law, Edward Tay has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.
