README
Pinocchio is open-source software actively developed by the Willow team at Inria in the lovely city of Paris. Pinocchio instantiates state-of-the-art Rigid Body Algorithms for poly-articulated systems, building upon and revisiting the foundational algorithms introduced by Roy Featherstone.
Beyond traditional rigid-body dynamics formulations, Pinocchio delivers cutting-edge algorithmic solutions for modern robotics and physics-based simulation challenges. It efficiently handles closed-loop kinematic mechanisms, solves frictional contact problems, and differentiates physics computations — making it a powerful and versatile library for both research and industrial applications.
Pinocchio also provides analytical derivatives of the main Rigid Body Algorithms — such as the Recursive Newton-Euler Algorithm and the Articulated-Body Algorithm — enabling gradient-based optimization, control, and learning in both simulation and real-world settings.
Pinocchio was originally designed for robotics applications, but it can be used in other contexts (biomechanics, computer graphics, vision, etc.).