General improvements in the iDynTree loader

- The loader will now take as input the package directories
- It is now possible to load a reduced model by specifying the list of the joints

Author: GiulioRomualdi

pyproject.toml

@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ keywords = ["robot", "description", "urdf", "mjcf"]
 [project.optional-dependencies]
 opts = [
     "pin >=2.6.10",
-    "idyntree >= 5.0.1",
+    "idyntree >= 8.0.0",
     "robomeshcat >=1.0.4",
     "yourdfpy >=0.0.52",
 ]

robot_descriptions/loaders/idyntree.py

@@ -20,16 +20,24 @@
 """
 
 from importlib import import_module  # type: ignore
+from typing import List, Optional
+from .pinocchio import get_package_dirs
 
 import idyntree.swig as idyn
 
 
-def load_robot_description(description_name: str) -> int:
+def load_robot_description(description_name: str,
+                           joints_list: Optional[List[str]] = None,
+) -> idyn.Model:
     """
     Load a robot description in iDynTree.
 
     Args:
         description_name: Name of the robot description.
+        joints_list: Optional parameter containing the list of the joints considered
+                     in the model. If empty the model will contain all the joints
+                     specified in the urdf, otherwise a reduced model containing
+                     only the specified joints is created.
 
     Returns:
         Identifier of the robot in iDynTree.
@@ -39,6 +47,18 @@ def load_robot_description(description_name: str) -> int:
         raise ValueError(f"{description_name} is not a URDF description")
 
     model_loader = idyn.ModelLoader()
-    model_loader.loadModelFromFile(module.URDF_PATH)
+
+    if (joints_list is None):
+        if not model_loader.loadModelFromFile(module.URDF_PATH, \
+                                              'urdf', \
+                                              get_package_dirs(module)):
+            raise ValueError(f"Unable to load {description_name} with iDynTree")
+    else:
+        if not model_loader.loadReducedModelFromFile(module.URDF_PATH, \
+                                                     joints_list, \
+                                                     'urdf', \
+                                                     get_package_dirs(module)):
+            raise ValueError(f"Unable to load {description_name} with iDynTree")
+
     robot = model_loader.model().copy()
     return robot