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PyMJCF

IMPORTANT: If you find yourself stuck while using PyMJCF, check out the various IMPORTANT boxes on this page and the Common gotchas section at the bottom to see if any of them is relevant.

This library provides a Python object model for MuJoCo's XML-based MJCF physics modeling language. The goal of the library is to allow users to easily interact with and modify MJCF models in Python, similarly to what the JavaScript DOM does for HTML.

A key feature of this library is the ability to easily compose multiple separate MJCF models into a larger one. Disambiguation of duplicated names from different models, or multiple instances of the same model, is handled automatically.

The following snippet provides a quick example of this library's typical use case. Here, the UpperBody class can simply instantiate two copies of Arm, thus reducing code duplication. The names of bodies, joints, or geoms of each Arm are automatically prefixed by their parent's names, and so no name collision occurs.

from dm_control import mjcf

class Arm:

  def __init__(self, name):
    self.mjcf_model = mjcf.RootElement(model=name)

    self.upper_arm = self.mjcf_model.worldbody.add('body', name='upper_arm')
    self.shoulder = self.upper_arm.add('joint', name='shoulder', type='ball')
    self.upper_arm.add('geom', name='upper_arm', type='capsule',
                       pos=[0, 0, -0.15], size=[0.045, 0.15])

    self.forearm = self.upper_arm.add('body', name='forearm', pos=[0, 0, -0.3])
    self.elbow = self.forearm.add('joint', name='elbow',
                                  type='hinge', axis=[0, 1, 0])
    self.forearm.add('geom', name='forearm', type='capsule',
                     pos=[0, 0, -0.15], size=[0.045, 0.15])

class UpperBody:

  def __init__(self):
    self.mjcf_model = mjcf.RootElement()
    self.mjcf_model.worldbody.add(
        'geom', name='torso', type='box', size=[0.15, 0.045, 0.25])
    left_shoulder_site = self.mjcf_model.worldbody.add(
        'site', size=[1e-6]*3, pos=[-0.15, 0, 0.25])
    right_shoulder_site = self.mjcf_model.worldbody.add(
        'site', size=[1e-6]*3, pos=[0.15, 0, 0.25])

    self.left_arm = Arm(name='left_arm')
    left_shoulder_site.attach(self.left_arm.mjcf_model)

    self.right_arm = Arm(name='right_arm')
    right_shoulder_site.attach(self.right_arm.mjcf_model)

body = UpperBody()
physics = mjcf.Physics.from_mjcf_model(body.mjcf_model)

Basic operations

Creating an MJCF model

In PyMJCF, the basic building block of a model is an mjcf.Element. This corresponds to an element in the generated XML. However, user code cannot instantiate a generic mjcf.Element object directly.

A valid model always consists of a single root <mujoco> element. This is represented as the special mjcf.RootElement type in PyMJCF, which can be instantiated in user code to create an empty model.

from dm_control import mjcf

mjcf_model = mjcf.RootElement()
print(mjcf_model)  # MJCF Element: <mujoco/>

Adding new elements

Attributes of the new element can be passed as kwargs:

my_box = mjcf_model.worldbody.add('geom', name='my_box',
                                  type='box', pos=[0, .1, 0])
print(my_box)  # MJCF Element: <geom name="my_box" type="box" pos="0. 0.1 0."/>

Parsing an existing XML document

Alternatively, if an existing XML file already exists, PyMJCF can parse it to create a Python object:

from dm_control import mjcf

# Parse from path
mjcf_model = mjcf.from_path(filename)

# Parse from file
with open(filename) as f:
  mjcf_model = mjcf.from_file(f)

# Parse from string
with open(filename) as f:
  xml_string = f.read()
mjcf_model = mjcf.from_xml_string(xml_string)

print(type(mjcf_model))  # <type 'mjcf.RootElement'>

Traversing through a model

Consider the following MJCF model:

<mujoco model="test">
  <default>
    <default class="brick">
      <geom rgba="1 0 0 1"/>
    </default>
  </default>
  <worldbody>
    <body name="foo">
      <freejoint/>
      <inertial pos="0 0 0" mass="1"/>
      <body name="bar">
        <joint name="my_hinge" type="hinge"/>
        <geom name="my_geom" pos="0 1 2" class="brick"/>
      </body>
    </body>
  </worldbody>
</mujoco>

The child elements and XML attributes of an Element object are exposed as Python attributes. These attributes all have the same names as their XML counterparts, with one exception: the class XML attribute is named dclass in order to avoid a clash with the Python class keyword:

my_geom = mjcf_model.worldbody.body['foo'].body['bar'].geom['my_geom']
print(isinstance(mjcf_model, mjcf.Element)) # True
print(my_geom.name)    # 'my_geom'
print(my_geom.pos)     # np.array([0., 1., 2.], dtype=float)
print(my_geom.class)   # SyntaxError
print(my_geom.dclass)  # 'brick'

Note that attribute values in the object model are not affected by defaults:

print(mjcf_model.default.default['brick'].geom.rgba)  # [1, 0, 0, 1]
print(my_geom.rgba)  # None

Finding elements without traversing

We can also find elements directly without having to traverse through the object hierarchy:

found_geom = mjcf_model.find('geom', 'my_geom')
print(found_geom == my_geom)  # True

Find all elements of a given type:

# Note that <freejoint> is also considered a joint
joints = mjcf_model.find_all('joint')
print(len(joints))  # 2
print(joints[0] == mjcf_model.worldbody.body['foo'].freejoint)  # True
print(joints[1] == mjcf_model.worldbody.body['foo'].body['bar'].joint[0])  # True

Note that the order of elements returned by find_all is the same as the order in which they are declared in the model.

Modifying XML attributes

Attributes can be modified, added, or removed:

my_geom.pos = [1, 2, 3]
print(my_geom.pos)   # np.array([1., 2., 3.], dtype=float)
my_geom.quat = [0, 1, 0, 0]
print(my_geom.quat)  # np.array([0., 1., 0., 0.], dtype=float)
del my_geom.quat
print(my_geom.quat)   # None

Schema violations result in errors:

print(my_geom.poss)  # raise AttributeError (no child or attribute called poss)
my_geom.pos = 'invalid'  # raise ValueError (assigning string to array)
my_geom.pos = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]  # raise ValueError (array length is too long)

# raise ValueError (mass is a required attribute of <inertial>)
del mjcf_model.find('body', 'foo').inertial.mass

Uniqueness of identifiers

PyMJCF enforces the uniqueness of "identifier" attributes within a model. Identifiers consist of the class attribute of a <default>, and all name attributes. Their uniqueness is only enforced within a particular namespace. For example, a <body> is allowed to have the same name as a <geom>, whereas <position> and <velocity> actuators cannot have the same name.

mjcf_model.worldbody.add('geom', name='my_geom')
foo = mjcf_model.worldbody.find('body', 'foo')
foo.add('my_geom')  # Error, duplicated geom name
foo.add('foo')  # OK, a geom can have the same name as a body
mjcf_model.find('geom', 'foo').name = 'my_geom'  # Error, duplicated geom name

Reference attributes

Some attributes are references to other elements. For example, the joint attribute of an actuator refers to a <joint> element in the model.

An mjcf.Element can be directly assigned to these reference attributes:

my_hinge = mjcf_model.find('joint', 'my_hinge')
my_actuator = mjcf_model.actuator.add('velocity', joint=my_hinge)

This is the recommended way to assign reference attributes, since it guarantees that the reference is not invalidated if the referenced element is renamed. Alternatively, a string can also be assigned to reference attributes. In this case, PyMJCF does not attempt to verify that the named element actually exists in the model.

IMPORTANT: If the element being referenced is in a different model to the reference attribute (e.g. in an attached model), the reference must be created by directly assigning an mjcf.Element object to the attribute rather than a string. Strings assigned to reference attributes cannot contain '/', since they are automatically scoped by PyMJCF upon attachment.

Attaching models

In this section we will refer to an mjcf.RootElement simply as a "model". Models can be attached to other models in order to create compositional scenes.

arena = mjcf.RootElement()
arena.worldbody.add('geom', name='ground', type='plane', size=[10, 10, 1])

robot = mjcf.from_xml_file('robot.xml')
arena.attach(robot)

We refer to arena as the parent model, and robot as the child model (or the attached model).

Attachment frames

When a model is attached to a site, an empty body is created in the parent model. This empty body is called an attachment frame.

The attachment frame is created as a child of the body that contains the attachment site, and it has the same position and orientation as the site. When the XML is generated, the attachment frame's contents shadow the contents of the attached model's <worldbody>. The attachment frame's name in the generated XML is the child's fully/qualified/prefix/. The trailing slash ensures that the attachment frame's name never collides with a user-defined body.

More concretely, if we have the following parent and child models:

<mujoco model="parent">
  <worldbody>
    <body>
      <geom name="foo" type="box" pos="-0.2 0 0.3" size="0.5 0.3 0.1"/>
      <site name="attachment_site" pos="1. 2. 3." quat="1. 0. 0. 1."/>
    </body>
  </worldbody>
</mujoco>

<mujoco model="child">
  <worldbody>
    <geom name="bar" type="box" pos="0.5 0.25 1." size="0.1 0.2 0.3"/>
  </worldbody>
</mujoco>

Then the final generated XML will be:

<!-- PyMJCF-generated XML, contains implementation details -->
<mujoco model="parent">
  <worldbody>
    <body>
      <geom name="foo" type="box" pos="-0.2 0 0.3" size="0.5 0.3 0.1"/>
      <site name="attachment_site" pos="1. 2. 3." quat="1. 0. 0. 1."/>
      <body name="child/" pos="1. 2. 3." quat="1. 0. 0. 1.">
        <geom name="child/my_box" type="box" pos="0.5 0.25 1." size="0.1 0.2 0.3"/>
      </body>
    </body>
  </worldbody>
</mujoco>

IMPORTANT: The attachment frame is created transparently to the user. In particular, it is NOT treated as a regular body by PyMJCF. Its name in the generated XML should be considered implementation detail and should NOT be relied on.

Having said that, it is sometimes necessary to access the attachment frame, for example to add a joint between the parent and the child model. The easiest way to do this is to hold a reference to the object returned by a call to attach:

attachment_frame = parent_model.attach('child')
attachment_frame.add('freejoint')

Alternatively, if a model has already been attached, the find function can be used with the attachment_frame namespace in order to retrieve the attachment frame. The get_attachment_frame convenience function in mjcf.traversal_utils can find the child model's attachment frame without needing access to the parent model.

frame_1 = parent_model.find('attachment_frame', 'child')

# Convenience function: get the attachment frame directly from a child model
frame_2 = mjcf.traversal_utils.get_attachment_frame(child_model)
print(frame_1 == frame_2)  # True

IMPORTANT: To encourage good modeling practices, the only allowed direct children of an attachment frame are <joint> and <inertial>. Other types of elements should instead add be added to the <worldbody> of the attached model.

Element ownership

IMPORTANT: Elements of child models do not appear when traversing through the parent model.

Default classes

PyMJCF ensures that default classes of a parent model never affect any of its child models. This minimises the possibility that two models become subtly "incompatible", as a model always behaves in the same way regardless of what it is attached to.

The way that PyMJCF achieves this in practice is to move everything in a model's global <default> context into a default class named /. In other words, a PyMJCF-generated model never has anything in the global default context. Instead, the generated model always looks like:

<!-- PyMJCF-generated XML, contains implementation details -->
<mujoco>
  <default>
    <default class="/">
      <!-- "global defaults" go here -->
      <geom rgba="1. 0. 0. 1."/>
    </default>
  </default>
</mujoco>

IMPORTANT: This transformation is transparent to the user. Within Python, the above geom rgba setting is accessed as if it were a global default, i.e. mjcf_model.default.geom.rgba. Generally speaking, users should never have to worry about PyMJCF's internal handling of defaults.

When a model is attached, its / default class turns into fully/qualified/prefix/. The trailing slash ensures that this transformation never conflicts with a user-named default class. More specifically, if we have the following parent and child models:

<mujoco model="parent">
  <default>
    <geom rgba="1. 0. 0. 1."/>
    <default class="green">
      <geom rgba="0. 1. 0. 1."/>
    </default>
  </default>
</mujoco>

<mujoco model="child">
  <default>
    <joint range="0. 1."/>
    <default class="stiff">
      <joint stiffness="0.1"/>
    </default>
  </default>
</mujoco>

Then the final generated XML will be:

<!-- PyMJCF-generated XML, contains implementation details -->
<mujoco model="parent">
  <default>
    <default class="/">
      <geom rgba="1. 0. 0. 1."/>
      <default class="green">
        <geom rgba="0. 1. 0. 1."/>
      </default>
    </default>
    <default class="child/">
      <joint range="0. 1."/>
      <default class="child/stiff">
        <joint stiffness="0.1"/>
      </default>
    </default>
  </default>
</mujoco>

Global options

A model cannot be attached to another model if any of the global options are different. Global options consist of attributes of <compiler>, <option>, <size>, and <visual>. As with the handling of default classes, this is to ensure that two models do not become subtly "incompatible". For example:

model_1 = mjcf.RootElement()
model_1.compiler.angle = 'radian'

model_2 = mjcf.RootElement()
model_2.compiler.angle = 'degree'

model_1.attach(model_2)  # Error!

An option is considered to be conflicting only if both models explicitly assign different values to it. An example of where conflicting options can become problematic is:

model_1 = mjcf.RootElement()

model_2 = mjcf.RootElement()
model_2.compiler.angle = 'degree'

model_1.attach(model_2)  # No error, but all angles in model_1 are now wrong!

Here, model_1 assumes MuJoCo's default angle unit of radians. Since it does not explicitly assign a value to compiler.angle, PyMJCF does not detect a conflict with angle=degree in model_2. All angles in model_1 are now incorrectly interpreted as degrees.

Elements outside of <worldbody>

All children of non-worldbody elements, e.g. actuators or tendons, are automatically merged in to appropriate places when a model is attached. Named elements are prefixed as previously described.

Common gotchas

Use foo.dclass, not foo.class

The class XML attribute corresponds to the dclass Python attribute in PyMJCF. This is because class is a reserved keyword in Python. However, it is OK to use 'class' in getattr.

<geom name="my_geom" class="red"/>
print(my_geom.class)   # SyntaxError
print(my_geom.dclass)  # 'red'
print(getattr(my_geom, 'class'))  # 'red'

foo.type and foo.range are fine

The type and range attributes will trigger syntax highlighting in Cider, but they are NOT reserved words in Python.

my_geom.type = 'capsule'  # OK!
my_joint.range = [-1, 1]  # OK!

A model can only be attached once

A model cannot be attached twice. If you require multiple copies of the same model in your simulation, make a deepcopy. Preferably, though, define a class that constructs the model and just call the constructor as many times as required.