Drake v1.38.0

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Announcements

  • Build changes
    • When building from source, there is now a single setup/install_prereqs script for all platforms, which defaults to installing only the build prereqs (not developer prereqs) (#22461).
    • When building from source, Drake can optionally build BLAS and LAPACK from source on Ubuntu (#22529). For CMake users, set WITH_USER_BLAS and/or WITH_USER_LAPACK to OFF to have Drake build them from source. For Bazel users, use the new //tools/flags:private_runtime_repo_default or :blas_repo or :lapack_repo.
    • The macOS binary install_prereqs installs Python packages into a venv instead of system-wide (#22477), and macOS binary packages no longer use brew for eigen/fmt/spdlog (#22519).
    • The macOS pip wheels for Python 3.11 are deprecated and will no longer be published after v1.40.0 (approximately 2025-04-15) (#22581).
    • Render engines now dynamically load GL/GLX/EGL/OpenGL instead of linking them (#22494).
    • As announced in v1.37.0, for Bazel users Drake has been ported to Bazel modules instead of repository rules.
      • Please start porting your project to the new technology. See the drake_bazel_external example for how to use this from your project.
      • Refer to the comments in drake/tools/flags/BUILD.bazel to see new flags you can use to govern the dependencies.
      • We plan to deprecate Drake’s legacy WORKSPACE support in our next release (v1.39.0). For timeline updates, follow #20731.
  • Be careful when directly adding multibody elements (#22498): Python code must no longer assume that the object passed MultibodyPlant.AddJoint, MultibodyPlant.AddFrame, or MultibodyPlant.AddForceElement is what gets added to the plant. Instead, code should always capture the return value, i.e.: 
    # Good:
joint = plant.AddJoint(PrismaticJoint(...))
# Also okay:
joint = PrismaticJoint(...)
joint = plant.AddJoint(joint)

    but in this example:

    # Needs care:
joint = PrismaticJoint(...)
plant.AddJoint(joint)

    the original joint reference will NOT necessarily be part of the plant, so would probably be a mistake to be used thereafter.

Breaking changes since v1.37.0

  • Drake’s generated C++ LCM message headers now use std::array (#20761). The class drake::EigenMapView might help with porting.
  • Remove MUMPS support in wheel builds of Ipopt (#22489). This was already deprecated, but we found the need to accelerate the timeline.
  • The vector<vector<Binding>> return types for KinematicTrajectoryOptimization AddAccelerationBounds and AddJerkBounds are now vector<Bindings> (#22552).
  • The protected API of the Joint base class (for implementing custom joints) is no longer Stable API (#22620).
    • Third-party subclasses of Joint must adapt to a new API (#22608). See changes to internal joints in this PR for guidance.
  • Remove the ability for Python subclasses of MaxCliqueSolverBase to override the DoClone virtual function (#22425). The Clone function is deprecated and unused anyway, so hopeful this won’t be a problem in practice.

Refer to our Drake Stability Guidelines for our policy on API changes.

Changes since v1.37.0

Dynamical Systems

New features

  • Implement continuous- to discrete-time conversion for affine systems (#22601)
  • Add parameters to RgbdSensorAsync (#22427)

Fixes

  • Fix diagram scalar conversion losing external constraints (#22490)

Mathematical Program

New features

  • Makes GCS clonable and implements ImplicitGcsFromExplicit (#22369)

Fixes

  • None

Multibody Dynamics and Geometry

New features

  • Add CurvilinearJoint (#22350)
  • Meshcat AddSlider and SetSliderValue return rounded/truncated value (#22495)

Fixes

  • Introduce a new DoShallowClone virtual function on Joint, Frame, and ForceElement; downstream code that has implemented its own subclass of any of those bases must override the new virtual function (#22498)
  • Fix plant lifetime in IK AddMultibodyPlantConstraints (#22502)
  • Fix IK crash on non-world floating joints (#22578)
  • Render engines dynamically load GL/GLX/EGL/OpenGL (#22494)
  • MuJoCo parsing:
    • Fix “ref” attribute handling (#22497)
    • Upgrade unsupported mesh to error (#22481)
    • Silently ignore some attributes/elements (#22493)
    • Add defaults parsing in actuators and contact pairs (#22625)
  • Fix Meshcat MTL processing (#22487)
  • Fix OBJ parsing for multiple MTL materials (#22524)
  • SceneGraph protects itself from non-finite values on its inputs (#22592)
  • MultibodyPlant hinders writing user non-finite values to context (#22594)

Planning

New features

  • Effort limits for Kinematic Trajectory Optimization (#22579)
  • Kinematic Trajectory Optimization adds velocity linear constraint (#22599)
  • Complete GetContinuousRevoluteJointIndices, adding support for the last two compatible joints (UniveralJoint and BallRpyJoint) (#22585)
  • Growing IRIS-ZO Regions Along a Parametrized Subspace (#22558)

Fixes

  • Collision checker protects itself from non-finite values (#22593)

Tutorials and examples

  • In notebooks, pydrake.systems.drawing.plot_graphviz uses an improved IPython display via SVG (#22526)

Miscellaneous features and fixes

  • ModelVisualizer can show a glTF files directly (#22596)
  • Implement BsplineTrajectory and BsplineBasis “linear in control points” logic (#22535)
  • Enable YAML serialization for MemoryFile (#22560)

pydrake bindings

New features

  • None

Fixes

  • Setting context values now clones instead of owns (#22455)
  • Fix model_visualizer --show_rgbd_sensor on Ubuntu (#22492)

Build system

  • There is now a single setup/install_prereqs script for all platforms (#22461)
  • The macOS binary install_prereqs installs Python packages into a venv instead of system-wide (#22477)
  • Fix when installing from source and CMake’s WITH_USER_... option for eigen, fmt, or spdlog is OFF to install their headers alongside Drake’s headers (#22520)
  • Fix installed pybind11-config to find the correct python version (#22333)
  • Consuming Drake as a CMake external will no longer find and depend on LCM (#20761)
  • Switch to Python reimplementation of lcm_gen (#20761)
  • Installed lcmtypes C++ message classes are now part of the main Drake CMake library rather than a separate one (#22521)
  • Document the new “spdlog disabled” flag as experimental (#22577)
  • Fix install_prereqs to only prefetch bazel when its been installed (#22575)
  • Linux wheel builds now use our own source build of BLAS and LAPACK (and so, no longer copy the Ubuntu libraries into our wheel) (#22529)

Build dependencies

  • Use clang-format from bzlmod instead of Ubuntu / Homebrew (#22504)
  • Dynamically load GL/GLX/EGL/OpenGL instead of linking them (#22494)
  • macOS binary packages no longer use brew for eigen/fmt/spdlog (#22519)
  • Optionally build blas and lapack from source (#22529)
  • Optionally build zlib from source (#22588)
  • Downgrade rules_cc to 0.0.17 (#22483)
  • Upgrade abseil_cpp_internal to latest commit (#22545)
  • Upgrade bazel to latest release 8.0.1 (#22538)
  • Upgrade buildifier to latest release v8.0.2 (#22545)
  • Upgrade clang-format to release 19.1.3 (#22554)
  • Upgrade crate_universe to latest (#22545)
  • Upgrade drake_models to latest commit (#22454, #22508, #22545)
  • Upgrade libpng_internal to latest release v1.6.46 (#22545)
  • Upgrade mujoco_menagerie_internal to latest commit (#22545)
  • Upgrade nanoflann_internal to latest release v1.6.3 (#22545)
  • Upgrade openusd_internal to latest release v25.02 (#22568)
  • Upgrade python venv (macOS) to latest (#22503, #22570)
  • Upgrade ros_xacro_internal to latest release 2.0.12 (#22545)
  • Upgrade spral_internal to latest release v2025.01.08 (#22567)
  • Upgrade stable_baselines3_internal to latest release v2.5.0 (#22566)
  • Upgrade tinygltf_internal to latest release v2.9.5 (#22545)
  • Upgrade tinyobjloader_internal to latest commit (#22564)
  • Remove unused and bitrotted @gurobi//:gurobi_cxx target (#22571)

Newly-deprecated APIs

  • drake::multibody::Joint::has_implementation (#22620)
  • drake::planning::graph_algorithms::MaxCliqueSolverBase::Clone (#22425)
  • drake::systems::analysis::SimulatorFactory (#22528)
  • drake::systems::estimators::SteadyStateKalmanFilter overload that takes a mutable context (#22563)
  • drake::systems::sensors::RgbdSensorAsync::X_PB (#22427)
  • drake::systems::sensors::RgbdSensorAsync::color_camera (#22427)
  • drake::systems::sensors::RgbdSensorAsync::depth_camera (#22427)
  • drake::systems::sensors::RgbdSensorAsync::parent_id (#22427)
  • The @glx external (#22494)
  • The @libblas external (#22529)
  • The @liblapack external (#22529)
  • The @opengl external (#22494)
  • The macOS pip wheels for Python 3.11 will no longer be published after v1.40.0 (#22581).
  • Drake will no longer install LCM after v1.40.0 (#20761).
    • The DrakeLcm wrapper class and Drake generated messages will remain intact, but the LCM headers and command line programs will no longer be installed, including Drake’s command line wrappers such as drake-lcm-spy.
    • If you still need those LCM tools, build LCM as an ExternalProject using its first-party CMakeLists.txt build instead of Drake’s re-implementation.

Removal of deprecated items

  • None

Notes

This release provides pre-compiled binaries named drake-1.38.0-{jammy|noble|mac-arm64}.tar.gz. See Stable Releases for instructions on how to use them.

Drake binary releases incorporate a pre-compiled version of SNOPT as part of the Mathematical Program toolbox. Thanks to Philip E. Gill and Elizabeth Wong for their kind support.