With the increasing complexity of robot systems, it is necessary to simulate them before deployment. To do this, a model of the robot's kinematics or dynamics is required. One of the most commonly used formats for modeling robots is the Unified Robot Description Format (URDF). The goal of this article is to understand how URDF is currently used, what challenges people face when working with it, and how the community sees the future of URDF. The outcome can potentially be used to guide future research. This article presents the results from a survey based on 510 anonymous responses from robotic developers of different backgrounds and levels of experience. We find that 96.8% of the participants have simulated robots before, and of them 95.5% had used URDF. We identify a number of challenges and limitations that complicate the use of URDF, such as the inability to model parallel linkages and closed-chain systems, no real standard, lack of documentation, and a limited number of dynamic parameters to model the robot. Future perspectives for URDF are also determined, where 53.5% believe URDF will be more commonly used in the future, 12.2% believe other standards or tools will make URDF obsolete, and 34.4% are not sure what the future of URDF will be. Most participants agree that there is a need for better tooling to ensure URDF's future use.

翻译：随着机器人系统日益复杂，在部署前对其进行仿真已成为必要。为此，需要建立机器人运动学或动力学模型。最常用的机器人建模格式之一是统一机器人描述格式（URDF）。本文旨在理解URDF的当前使用状况、用户在使用过程中面临的挑战，以及社区对URDF未来发展的看法，其成果有望为后续研究提供指导。本文基于来自510位不同背景和经验水平的机器人开发者的匿名反馈，呈现了调查结果。我们发现，96.8%的参与者曾进行过机器人仿真，其中95.5%的人使用过URDF。我们识别出若干阻碍URDF应用的挑战与局限，例如无法建模并联连杆和闭链系统、缺乏统一标准、文档不足，以及用于机器人建模的动态参数数量有限。此外，本文还确定了URDF的未来发展前景：53.5%的参与者认为URDF将在未来得到更广泛应用，12.2%认为其他标准或工具将取代URDF，34.4%对URDF的未来表示不确定。多数参与者一致认为，需要更好的工具支持以确保URDF的未来应用。