Drake v1.55.0

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Announcements

  • Support for Eigen legacy autodiff has been removed. Drake now uses its own implementation of the AutoDiffXd scalar type (#24670, #24298, #23870).
    • The settings for --@drake//tools/flags:use_eigen_legacy_autodiff and DRAKE_USE_EIGEN_LEGACY_AUTODIFF have been removed.
  • Drake has started porting our Python bindings from pybind11 to nanobind (#21572).
    • In the future, Drake will eventually drop support for pybind11. Users who build Drake from source and add additional bindings for their own project’s Drake-adjacent code will eventually need to make the same transition, and should subscribe to the issue for updates.

Previously announced

  • Tutorials are no longer hosted on Deepnote (#24557). Instead, the tutorials are now hosted on Drake’s webpage.
  • Releases are no longer accompanied by a Docker image, which has been deprecated (#24048). See Installation via Docker and End of Support for more information.
  • The drake-apt site at https://drake-apt.csail.mit.edu is deprecated (#24282).
    • The site will continue to be updated with stable releases for Ubuntu 24.04 (“Noble”) until March 2028, but will not add support for newer versions of Ubuntu.
    • Instead of using the drake-apt site, users should switch to directly installing the *.deb package attached to Drake releases. See drake_cmake_installed_apt for an example.
  • For binary releases, install_prereqs should no longer be run under sudo (#24458).

Breaking changes since v1.54.0

  • None

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

Changes since v1.54.0

Dynamical Systems

  • None

Mathematical Program

  • None

Multibody Dynamics and Geometry

New features

  • Introduce concept of “inactive” proximity geometry in collision filters (#24614)
  • Meshcat visualizer supports deformables (#24608)
  • CENIC supports joint locking (#24634)

Fixes

  • Fix bug in scalar converting MultibodyPlant vis a vis DeformableModel (#24640)
  • CENIC constraints handle small time steps (#24661)
  • Elide identity frames in joint parsing (#24687)

Planning

New features

  • None

Fixes

  • Fix MinCliqueSolverBase NVI access level to be protected, not private (#24663)

Tutorials and examples

  • None

Miscellaneous features and fixes

  • None

pydrake bindings

  • None

Build system

  • Improve handling of C / CXX flags (#24674)
  • Fix hermetic rules_python interpreters with version triples (#24720)
  • Add Bazel --@drake//tools/flags:python_binder flag to choose between pybind11 and (eventually) nanobind (#24724)

Build dependencies

  • Use libjpeg_turbo from Bazel Central Registry (#24612)
  • Use hidden visibility when building zlib from source (#24675)
  • Update Python venv to latest (#24702)
  • Update crate_universe to latest (#24697)
  • Update dependency apple_support to 2.6.1 (#24683)
  • Update dependency bazel to 9.2.0 (#24717)
  • Update dependency bazel_features to 1.50.0 (#24679)
  • Update dependency common_robotics_utilities_internal to latest commit (#24691)
  • Update dependency curl_internal to 8.21.0 (#24699)
  • Update dependency dm_control_internal to 1.0.43 (#24691)
  • Update dependency drake_models to latest commit (#24691)
  • Update dependency fmt to 12.2.0 (#24684)
  • Update dependency github3_py_internal to 4.0.1 (#24651)
  • Update dependency libjpeg_turbo to 3.1.3.bcr.6 (#24689)
  • Update dependency meshcat to latest commit (#24665)
  • Update dependency mujoco_menagerie_internal to latest commit (#24691)
  • Update dependency nanoflann_internal to 1.10.1 (#24691)
  • Update dependency ruff_prebuilt to 0.15.19.1 (#24681)
  • Update dependency rules_cc to 0.2.20 (#24682)
  • Update dependency rules_python to 2.2.0 (#24659, #24721)
  • Update dependency rules_rust to 0.71.2 (#24685)
  • Update dependency stable_baselines3_internal to 2.9.0 (#24691)
  • Update dependency tinyobjloader_internal to latest commit (#24641, #24691)
  • Update dependency toolchains_llvm to 1.8.0 (#24686)
  • Update dependency vtk_internal to latest commit (#24698)
  • Update supported Xcode to 26.6 on Tahoe (#24692)

Newly-deprecated APIs

  • None

Removal of deprecated items

Notes

This release provides pre-compiled binaries. See Installation 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.