Motion Studio — Multi-Robot Motion Retargeting and Joint Curve Editing

Motion Studio is a robot motion workbench that runs in the browser. Import a piece of motion-capture data and it turns a performance recorded on a human body into joint trajectories a specific robot can actually execute: map the skeleton, check the joint limits, verify velocity and acceleration curve by curve, clean up jitter and ground penetration, then export. All of it in a web page — no Maya, no Blender, no simulation stack to install first.

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The problem it solves

There is a real gap between mocap data and a robot. A human body has its own proportions and degrees of freedom; a robot has its own joint count, axes and limits. Map one onto the other directly and the usual result is joints driven past their limits, feet sinking through the floor, or a single frame whose angular acceleration no physical actuator can follow. None of that is obvious in a 3D preview — it only shows up once the joint curves are plotted.

Motion Studio puts retargeting and the verification of retargeting in the same window. On the left is a 3D stage where the human skeleton, the SMPL/SMPL-X mesh, the robot's URDF and its collision geometry can be overlaid. On the right are the joint curves — position, velocity and acceleration plotted together, with out-of-range intervals marked. Adjust the mapping and the curves update immediately, instead of exporting a version, running a simulation and coming back to retune.

Core capabilities

Multi-robot retargeting — skeleton and joint mapping for several target robots, so one mocap take can be reused across different bodies.
Broad format support — import BVH, FBX, SMPL/SMPL-X, NPZ, CSV, JSON and PKL motion and mapping assets; robots are read from URDF.
3D preview — human skeleton, human mesh, robot model, mapping result, edited motion and collision bodies as independently toggleable layers.
Joint curve analysis — trajectory, angular velocity and angular acceleration on one screen, with display smoothing and CSV export for the controls team.
Batch motion array preview — run several takes side by side in one 3D stage to select, compare and discard.
Pose and timeline editing — per-frame pose editing, frame insertion and deletion, transition blending, ground alignment, and ghost comparison against the source.
Export — GIF previews, WebM canvas recordings, and motion asset packages for downstream tools.

Typical uses

A batch of humanoid mocap takes arrives and you need to work out which ones are executable on the target body at all.
The retargeted motion jitters in simulation and you need to find which joints and which time window carry the acceleration spikes.
One dance or gait has to fit two or three robots with different DOF counts, and you want to clean the data once.
The motion looks right in preview but the feet slip on hardware, so ground alignment and foot trajectories need checking.
A set of motion assets has to be handed to a controls or reinforcement-learning team in a consistent export format, with curves to back it up.

Where it sits in the platform

Motion Studio owns the motion stage of the robot development flow. Upstream are BotWorld and URDF Studio, where robot bodies and models are discovered, edited and settled; downstream is BotLab, where a retargeted motion goes into simulation for closed-loop validation. All four products work standalone, and together they form a continuous chain around one shared asset.

BotWorld — robotics asset platform for discovering and distributing models, motions, skills, scenarios and cases.
URDF Studio — online robot model editor for URDF, MJCF, SDF and USD.
BotLab — browser-based low-code robot simulation and control-graph editor.
Platform documentation — the full manual from asset to simulation.

Frequently asked questions

Does Motion Studio need to be installed?: No. Import, preview, retargeting and curve analysis all happen in the browser.
Which mocap formats are supported?: BVH, FBX, SMPL/SMPL-X, NPZ, CSV, JSON and PKL for motion data; robots are read from URDF, including models edited in URDF Studio.
Can I retarget onto my own robot?: Yes. Supply that robot's URDF and the joint mapping panel lets you bind human bones to its joints, with limits and degrees of freedom validated against the model.
How do I verify a retargeted motion?: Check overall pose and foot contact in the 3D stage, then read each joint's position/velocity/acceleration curves for out-of-range intervals. For closed-loop validation, export the motion into BotLab and run it in simulation.
How does it relate to Blender or Maya?: They do not overlap. Those tools produce animation; Motion Studio makes a motion physically feasible on a real robot — joint limits, velocity constraints, contact and self-collision.