fixture_generation

This repository contains files and code for the paper Towards Autonomous Data Annotation and System-Agnostic Robotic Benchmarking with 3D-Printed Fixtures.

If you find this project useful for your research, consider citing

@inproceedings{boerdijk2025fixtures,
  title={Towards Autonomous Data Annotation and System-Agnostic Robotic Benchmarking with 3D-Printed Fixtures},
  author={Boerdijk, Wout and Durner, Maximilian and Sakagami, Ryo and Lehner, Peter and Triebel, Rudolph},
  booktitle={2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
  year={2025},
  organization={IEEE}
}

Overview

Fixture .stl files of all objects and scenes used in the paper can be found here.

Code is located in fixture_generation.

Generating fixtures

Install BlenderProc following the installation instructions. Install this package with e.g. pip install . inside its root directory. Then, use the utility functions located in fixture_generation.

Slider fixtures

import blenderproc as bproc
from fixture_generation.create_fixture_bot_attached import create_fixture_bot_attached

bproc.init()

# load the object
obj = bproc.loader.load_obj("path/to/your/object", forward_axis='X', up_axis='Z')[0]

# additional settings
fixture_height = 0.01  # fixture height in meters
open_side = '+x'  # coordinate axis for the open side; supported are combinations of +/- and x/y
tag_side = '+y'  # same as open_side

# create the fixture
fixture, obj2tag_trafo = create_fixture_bot_attached(obj=obj, fixture_height=fixture_height, open_side=open_side, 
                                                     tag_side=tag_side)

Cylindrical fixtures

import blenderproc as bproc
from fixture_generation.create_fixture_cylinder import create_fixture_cylinder

bproc.init()

# load the object
obj = bproc.loader.load_obj("path/to/your/object", forward_axis='X', up_axis='Z')[0]

# additional settings
xy_dims = ...  # tuple of x and y size in m
xy_loc = ...  # tuple of x and y location in m
height = ...  # float denoting the fixture height
offset = ...  # float denoting the offset

# create the fixture
fixture, obj2tag_trafo = create_fixture_cylinder(obj=obj, fixture_dims=xy_dims, fixture_loc=xy_loc, fixture_height=height,
                                                 offset=offset)

Top-down fixtures

import blenderproc as bproc
from fixture_generation.create_fixture_top_down import create_fixture_top_down

bproc.init()

# load the object
obj = bproc.loader.load_obj("path/to/your/object", forward_axis='X', up_axis='Z')[0]

# additional settings
xy_loc = ...  # tuple of x and y location in m
z_loc = ...  # float of the z location in m
xy_dims = ...  # dimensions of x and y in m
solidify = ...  # solidification in m
add_cube = ...  # boolean indicating whether to add a cube in case the fixture is not larger than the object
postprocess = ...  # boolean indicating whether to perform additional postprocessing for clean-up
tag_border = ...  # boolean indicating whether to add a tag border to the fixture

# create the fixture
fixture, obj2tag_trafo = create_fixture_top_down(obj=obj, fixture_dims=xy_dims, fixture_loc=xy_loc, z_loc=z_loc,
                                                 add_cube=add_cube, solidify=solidify, postprocess=postprocess, 
                                                 tag_border=tag_border)