True RoboAnimator app iconTrue RoboAnimator app icon

True RoboAnimator

Animation that real robots can drive.

A Blender add-on that turns keyframed chassis motion into engineering-accurate animation for wheeled robots: no sideways slip, wheel angles worked out frame by frame, and data that can drive hardware.

Get it on Blender Extensions GitHub
Stylized render of the True RoboAnimator panels floating in dark space

A keyframed robot can glide sideways or spin its wheels at any speed. A real one can’t. True RoboAnimator checks every frame against the robot’s kinematics and fixes the path before anyone builds it.

7,000+downloads on Blender Extensions
4wheel layouts: 2, 3, 4 and 6 wheels
Rated8.6of 10 for stability by Blender users
Blender4.2–5.0tested through Blender 5.0

Get the highlights.

  • Chassis only. Keyframe the body and it glides along its path while the wheels stay still.

    Blender

  • Wheels keyed by hand. Close enough to look right, with nothing to guarantee the wheels match the motion.

    Blender

  • With True RoboAnimator. Wheel angles are worked out from the chassis motion itself, frame by frame.

    Blender

  • One panel, top to bottom. Rig setup, calibration, motion path and wheel drivers, then import and export.

    True RoboAnimator
    The True RoboAnimator panels in Blender

  • Paths you can see. The keyed path in orange and the corrected path in cyan, redrawn as you change settings.

    Blender

Built on kinematics.

For robotics engineers and technical animators who need motion a real robot could follow.

  • Slip detection. Every frame of chassis motion is checked for sideways slip against a tolerance you set.

  • Two ways to fix a path. S-Ease smooths it into Bézier curves within the robot’s turning limit; Linear rotates in place, drives straight, then turns to the final heading.

  • Speed profiles. A trapezoid with acceleration ramps, one ease across the whole timeline, or an ease inside each segment.

  • Angles for every frame. Left, right and caster angles, with RPM and angular acceleration, cached per frame.

  • Automatic drivers. Rotation drivers on every wheel, in Euler or quaternion, each from its own rest orientation.

  • CSV in and out. Export time, pose, wheel angles and rates for engineering, or import trajectories back.

  • Safety limits. Caps on wheel speed in RPM and angular acceleration in RPM per second.

  • Viewport helpers. A forward arrow, color-coded wheel axes and both paths, drawn live through geometry.

  • Blender 4.2 to 5.0. A compatibility layer for slotted actions keeps reading and writing animation safe across versions.

Four ways to roll.

Pick the layout that matches the robot; the panel shows exactly the wheel slots it needs.

Two driven wheels; the robot turns through the difference in their speeds.

A passive caster pivots freely; its spin follows the forward travel of the chassis center.

Both wheels on a side share one angle.

Rocker-style skid-steer, with the same per-side sharing as four wheels.

forwardtrack width
forwardcastertrack width
forwardtrack width
forwardtrack width

The math, in the open.

Per-side wheel angles follow classic differential-drive integration. A caster ignores yaw: it pivots freely, so its spin tracks the forward travel of the chassis center.

Positive angles and rates always mean the wheel rolls forward, whatever way its model is oriented.

# per frame, from chassis motion dx and yaw dψ dsL = dx − ½ · track_width · dψ dsR = dx + ½ · track_width · dψ dθ = (ds / wheel_radius) · side_sign # 3 wheels: the caster follows the center dscaster = dx

From keyframes to hardware.

Eight steps, in the order the panel lays them out.

  1. Rig up

    Set the chassis and the wheel count, then assign each wheel slot.

  2. Calibrate

    Track width, wheel radius or auto-detect, and the rotation axis.

  3. Animate the chassis

    Keyframe location and rotation where the path changes.

  4. Validate

    Confirm there is no sideways slip.

  5. Autocorrect

    Pick a mode and a speed profile, bake, then validate again.

  6. Build the cache

    Integrate per-frame angles for every wheel.

  7. Drive or bake

    Drivers for live playback, or baked keys for other tools.

  8. Export

    An engineering CSV or a keyframe snapshot for hardware.

Tested, published, used.

Evaluation

Evaluated with Blender users

Think-aloud sessions rated it 8.6 of 10 for stability and 8.4 for workflow fit. It then passed Blender’s official extension review.

View the study
Companion · Web

RoboAnimator CSV Plotter

Plots the add-on’s CSV as a speed-coded path, a 3D path against speed and an animated timeline, all in the browser.

Open the plotter
Cite it

In academic work

Sarfraz, D. (2025). True RoboAnimator: Engineering-Accurate Wheeled-Robot Animation Toolkit for Blender. Graduate thesis project, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST).

Tech specs

Version
1.4.1
Blender
4.2 LTS through 5.0
Requirements
Python 3.11, bundled with Blender; no external dependencies
Robots
Differential drive (2 wheels), differential drive with a caster (3), skid-steer (4) and rover skid-steer (6)
Correction
S-Ease curves with a curvature clamp from the track width, or Linear rotate, move, rotate
Speed
Trapezoid with ramp frames, global ease, or per-key ease
Output
Engineering CSV at scene rate or a fixed rate in your units; keyframe CSV or JSON; baked wheel keys
License
GPL-3.0
Get it
Blender Extensions · GitHub

More artifacts

NextAMVROne CAD model in. Every view out.