Modular Reconfigurable Robots (MRRs) represent an exciting path forward for industrial robotics, opening up new possibilities for robot design. Compared to monolithic manipulators, they promise greater flexibility, improved maintainability, and cost-efficiency. However, there is no tool or standardized way to model and simulate assemblies of modules in the same way it has been done for robotic manipulators for decades. We introduce the Toolbox for Industrial Modular Robotics (Timor), a Python toolbox to bridge this gap and integrate modular robotics into existing simulation and optimization pipelines. Our open-source library offers model generation and task-based configuration optimization for MRRs. It can easily be integrated with existing simulation tools - not least by offering URDF export of arbitrary modular robot assemblies. Moreover, our experimental study demonstrates the effectiveness of Timor as a tool for designing modular robots optimized for specific use cases.

翻译：模块化可重构机器人（MRRs）为工业机器人领域开辟了激动人心的新路径，为机器人设计提供了全新可能性。与单体机械臂相比，它们具有更强的灵活性、更高的可维护性和成本效益。然而，目前尚无标准化的工具或方法来建模和模拟模块化组件组合，而这类方法在传统机器人机械臂领域已沿用数十年。我们提出工业模块化机器人工具箱（Timor）——一个Python工具箱，旨在弥合这一差距，将模块化机器人技术融入现有的仿真与优化流程。我们的开源库提供了MRR的模型生成与基于任务的配置优化功能，可轻松集成至现有仿真工具，特别是通过导出任意模块化机器人组件的URDF文件。此外，我们的实验研究表明，Timor作为针对特定用例优化设计的模块化机器人工具，具有显著有效性。