KISTAR_URDF

Open-source URDF and MuJoCo MJCF distribution of the KISTAR Hand family, developed at Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

This repository follows the structural convention of KIST-PRIME-Lab/dex-urdf, so each robot lives under robots/hands/<model_name>/ together with its meshes.

Maintainer / model author: Jaesung Lee  ·  Copyright © 2026 Korea Institute of Science and Technology  ·  License: BSD-3-Clause

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Models

Robot Model	Animation	Still pose	Format
KISTAR Hand			URDF + MJCF
KISTAR-SON (R)			URDF + MJCF
KISTAR-SON (L)			URDF + MJCF

The preview GIFs and PNGs above are generated directly from the MJCF files. Reproduce them any time with:

python tools/render_previews.py

See doc/RENDER.md for alternative rendering workflows (MuJoCo viewer screenshots, SAPIEN ray tracing, yourdfpy).

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Repository Layout

KISTAR_URDF/
├── LICENSE                        # BSD-3-Clause (Korea Institute of Science and Technology)
├── CITATION.cff
├── README.md                      # this file
├── doc/                           # placeholder figures + render guide
│   ├── kistar_hand_placeholder.svg
│   ├── kistar_son_left_placeholder.svg
│   ├── kistar_son_right_placeholder.svg
│   └── RENDER.md
└── robots/
    └── hands/
        ├── kistar_hand/           # KISTAR Hand Ver2 (4 fingers, single hand)
        │   ├── kistar_hand.urdf
        │   ├── kistar_hand.xml    # MuJoCo MJCF (16 joints / 13 actuators / 3 mimic)
        │   ├── README.md
        │   └── meshes/kistar/*.STL
        └── kistar_son/            # KISTAR-SON (5 fingers, left + right)
            ├── kistar_son_right_mockup.urdf
            ├── kistar_son_left_mockup.urdf
            ├── kistar_son_right.xml
            ├── kistar_son_left.xml
            ├── README.md
            └── 01_kistar_son_STL/*.STL

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Quick Start

1. Install dependencies

conda create -n kistar-urdf python=3.11 -y
conda activate kistar-urdf
pip install mujoco yourdfpy numpy

2. Open a model in MuJoCo

# KISTAR Hand (Ver2)
python -m mujoco.viewer --mjcf=robots/hands/kistar_hand/kistar_hand.xml

# KISTAR-SON (right)
python -m mujoco.viewer --mjcf=robots/hands/kistar_son/kistar_son_right.xml

# KISTAR-SON (left)
python -m mujoco.viewer --mjcf=robots/hands/kistar_son/kistar_son_left.xml

In the viewer:

• Left panel "Control" — move the sliders to drive each actuated joint
• Mouse left-drag — orbit the view
• Mouse right-drag — pan
• Mouse wheel — zoom
• Space — pause / resume
• Backspace — reset all joints to zero

3. Open a URDF in your favorite parser

URDF files are compatible with: yourdfpy, RViz, Gazebo, IsaacGym, IsaacSim, SAPIEN, PyBullet, ...

import yourdfpy
robot = yourdfpy.URDF.load("robots/hands/kistar_hand/kistar_hand.urdf")
robot.show()

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Model Specifications

KISTAR Hand (Ver2)

Item	Value
Fingers	4 (thumb, index, middle, ring)
Total joints	16 hinge
Actuators	13 position actuators
Mimic / Coupling	*_joint_3 follows *_joint_2 (index, middle, ring) via equality
Sensors	thumb 2 / index, middle, ring 3 each (modeled as welded bodies)
PD gains (MJCF)	kp=30, kv=0.7, force range ± 100 N·m
Contact (MJCF)	disabled (kinematic preview by default)

KISTAR-SON

Item	Value
Fingers	5 (thumb, index, middle, ring, little)
Total joints	20 hinge per hand
Actuators	15 position actuators per hand
Mimic / Coupling	*_3_joint ↔ *_2_joint (index, middle, ring), thumb_4 ↔ thumb_3, little_2 ↔ little_1
PD gains (MJCF)	kp=30, kv=0.7, force range ± 100 N·m
Contact (MJCF)	disabled (kinematic preview by default)

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Robot Source

Robot Model	Author / Affiliation	License	Origin
KISTAR Hand	Jaesung Lee, Korea Institute of Science and Technology	BSD-3	KIST-PRIME-Lab/Franka_Dual_Arm_PtoP
KISTAR-SON	Jaesung Lee, Korea Institute of Science and Technology	BSD-3	KIST internal

Reference repositories that inspired this layout:

• KIST-PRIME-Lab/dex-urdf — Dexterous robotic hands collection

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Citation

If you use these models, please cite:

@misc{kistar_urdf_2026,
  title  = {KISTAR Hand URDF / MJCF Distribution},
  author = {Jaesung Lee},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {Korea Institute of Science and Technology},
  url    = {https://github.com/JayLee00/KISTAR_URDF}
}

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License

BSD-3-Clause © 2026 Korea Institute of Science and Technology. Maintainer: Jaesung Lee <jay.lee@kist.re.kr>.