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URML (open robot intent language): a validated intent layer above the LoCoBot — request for comment #90

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@idoco2003

Hi Interbotix / Trossen Robotics community,

URML (urml.dev) is a small, Apache-2.0 language for describing robot intent: it validates a request against a capability manifest and a safety envelope, then dispatches. A mobile manipulator is the cleanest exercise of URML — "drive to the shelf and pick up the item" combines navigation and manipulation in one sentence — and the LoCoBot is a popular low-cost open mobile manipulator in education and research.

Nothing here asks the project to adopt, host, or maintain anything. This is a request for comment.

URML's ROS 2 runtime meets the Interbotix stack on its ROS 2 surface; "drive to the shelf and pick up the item" lowers onto a move_to (the base) plus a grasp (the Interbotix arm) — the decide-then-do split made concrete. Validate-before-actuate refuses an out-of-reach grasp or undeclared object before the arm moves. The base + arm manifest is a clean, affordable platform example of URML's capability model.

Two real questions: (1) Is URML's ROS 2 surface the right seam for a validated-intent layer above a LoCoBot-class rover? (2) What should a URML capability manifest declare to describe an Interbotix mobile manipulator honestly — drive type, arm reach/DOF, gripper + graspable classes, navigation bounds?

Full write-up: https://github.com/URML-MARS/URML/blob/main/docs/rfcs/0426-interbotix-locobot-outreach.md

Thanks for the Interbotix stack; an affordable open mobile manipulator is a great on-ramp for education and research.

Ido Yahalomi (URML, greenvh@gmail.com)

AI-assisted prose, maintainer-reviewed before posting (see VIBE.md). Human-only correspondence available on request.

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