Project Homunculus URDF viewer

Project Homunculus URDF viewer

Shows a data glove over an animated 3D hand in the browser, with sliders for 16 joints and a USB glove mode that reads live finger sensors. Runs with no backend.

Made by lerobot on Hugging Face. These notes are Mindket's, written from its Space page and README; the app's own files and license are on Hugging Face.

About

What it is: Project Homunculus URDF viewer is a web page that shows a glove over an animated, anatomical right hand. You can move 16 hand joints with sliders, or switch to a USB glove mode that reads a real glove. It runs entirely in the browser, using a packed CAD mesh and forward and inverse kinematics, with no backend.

Who it suits: Robotics and hardware makers who work with data gloves, and web developers who want a worked example of a three.js viewer driven by joint data.

Industry | Who uses it | How they use it | Example
Robotics | Teleoperation engineers | See how a glove's finger movement maps onto a hand model | Move the 16 hand sliders
Hardware | Glove builders | Calibrate a USB glove and watch the pose live | Switch to USB glove mode in Chrome or Edge
Education | Students | Learn how finger and thumb joints move | Press Touch index to see thumb opposition
Software | Web developers | Study a no-backend three.js viewer | Read src/robot.js

Anyone without a glove or an interest in hand kinematics can skip it.

Where to use it: It runs in these places.

• A web browser, on the Space's page at Hugging Face
• Chrome or Edge on a page served over HTTPS or localhost, for direct USB glove access
• Windows, macOS or Linux, by opening the downloaded index.html in a browser

Use case | Who | What they get back
Pose the virtual hand | Anyone | A moving hand and glove model driven by 16 sliders
Test thumb opposition | Students | The thumb touching each finger within the glove limits
Read a USB glove | Glove builders | Calibration, hand fitting and an IK pose output

How to set it up: Using the Space online needs only a browser. Getting its files onto your own computer needs the following.

• Python and pip, for the huggingface_hub package that gives you the hf command
• A web browser, with Chrome or Edge for USB glove input
• Disk space for the repository, which holds 25 files

1. Install the huggingface_hub package.
2. Download the Space's files into a local folder.
3. Move into that folder.
4. Open the file index.html in a web browser.

pip install -U huggingface_hub
hf download lerobot/glove_visualizer --repo-type space --local-dir glove_visualizer
cd glove_visualizer

The models under robot/ are generated in the parent project, not in this Space, with this script.

./build_space.sh

How to use it: Open the page and use the controls. Toggle between the glove and the hand, or move the sliders. Press F to curl the flexion joints, R to reset everything to zero, and drag on empty space to orbit the view, including underneath the hand.

Tool | What it does
Show glove and Show hand | Toggles between the glove and the anatomical hand
16 hand sliders | Move each joint of the hand
Touch index, middle, ring and pinky | Makes the thumb meet that finger, inside the limits of the hand and the glove
USB glove | Takes Web Serial input, with calibration, hand fitting and IK pose output
F and R keys | F curls the flexion joints and R resets all to zero

Example: You open the page, press the Touch index button and watch the thumb meet the index finger. Then you press R to reset the hand to zero and drag the background to orbit under it.

For newcomers and experts: A URDF is a file that describes a robot as linked joints. Here it describes a hand. The first small thing to try is the sliders, then the touch buttons.

Each long finger moves at the MCP joint in spread and pitch, at the PIP joint in pitch, and a DIP hinge simply mirrors the PIP angle. The thumb has CMC opposition and pitch, MCP pitch and IP pitch. In USB glove mode, the DIP sensors set the joints nearest the finger pads, and inverse kinematics works out the hinges between them to keep the pads in contact.

Glove model and kinematics load in the browser
Sliders or USB glove input set the joint angles
Forward and inverse kinematics pose the hand
Three.js draws the hand or glove

Good to know: Direct USB access needs Chrome or Edge on an HTTPS or localhost page. The glove's mesh is stored in a packed form to keep the page light.

Title: Glove mesh size
STL files on disk: 17.5 MB
Packed: 3 MB

• License: apache-2
• Cost to run: none named
• Data it reaches: the page's own files, and your USB glove if you connect one, with no backend
• Not for: reaching a USB glove from browsers other than Chrome or Edge

On Hugging Face, 13 November 2026

• Likes: 7
• Built with: static
• License: apache-2.0

Links

• Space: https://huggingface.co/spaces/lerobot/glove_visualizer
• Files: https://huggingface.co/spaces/lerobot/glove_visualizer/tree/main

Try it

Open the Space in your browser, or copy it to your own Hugging Face account from its page. Nothing in this kit runs by itself.