FourierSDK is the official developer toolkit from Fourier Intelligence (傅利叶智能), headquartered in Shanghai — one of the leading Chinese humanoid robot manufacturers. The SDK is designed for programming and research on GR (General Robot) series robots, primarily the GR1 and GR2.
The FourierSDK architecture is modular: the communication core is built on gRPC and MQTT (for WiFi connectivity), with a Python API layer and an optional ROS 2 interface. The main components are: FSA Motor SDK (EtherCAT/CAN motor control), GR Body SDK (kinematics, dynamics, gait trajectory planning), Arm SDK (control of 7-DOF manipulation arms with grippers), and Teleop SDK (teleoperation interfaces via haptic devices and VR controllers).
FourierSDK supports control modes: position, torque, impedance, and mixed. Integration with the Fourier Simulation Environment (based on Isaac Sim and MuJoCo) enables virtual prototyping before hardware deployment. The SDK supports ROS 2 through the fourier_ros2 package, enabling integration with Nav2, MoveIt 2 and the broader mobile robotics ecosystem.
In the robot learning context, Fourier Intelligence actively collaborates with research universities in China and globally — the SDK is used to collect demonstration data via teleoperation (haptic arms, VR). The GR1 platform participated in NVIDIA GR00T (cross-embodiment training) projects and is one of the platforms supported by LeRobot from Hugging Face.
FourierSDK is available via GitHub (fftai organisation) as a mixed open/closed source: the communication layer is open-source (MIT/Apache), while dynamic models and advanced control algorithms require an agreement with Fourier Intelligence.
An API Library is a software package that exposes programmatic interfaces for communicating with a device, service, or system. In robotics it typically forms a lightweight integration layer built on top of the manufacturer's official API or an open-source project, abstracting low-level protocol details and providing language-native bindings (Python, C++, Java, etc.).
A Control Stack is the set of software components responsible for control logic, motion planning, command execution, and coordination of a robot's actuators. It receives high-level goals or waypoints (from planning or AI layers) and translates them into low-level actuator commands, closed-loop feedback control, and safety checks. Common implementations include MoveIt (arm manipulation), Nav2 (mobile navigation), and custom whole-body control stacks for humanoids.
An SDK (Software Development Kit) is a curated set of libraries, interfaces, tools, sample code, and documentation intended for building applications and integrating with a specific hardware device, platform, or service. In robotics, an SDK typically exposes device control, telemetry, sensor access, configuration, and execution functions, significantly reducing the time-to-first-integration for developers targeting a specific robot or platform.
Robot Control denotes the role of software responsible for motion control, command execution, coordination of actuating elements and the direct operational logic of the robot.
The robot learning role describes software for training a robot's control policies and manipulation/locomotion skills using machine learning methods. It covers: reinforcement learning in simulation with sim-to-real transfer, imitation learning and learning from demonstration, training Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, and fine-tuning robotics foundation models. It typically uses massively parallelized simulation environments (Isaac Lab, MuJoCo) to generate training data, then deploys the trained policies on a physical robot.
Device Integration denotes the role of software responsible for communication, configuration, initialization and handling of specific devices, sensors, controllers or hardware components within a robotic system.
A family of official SDKs and APIs provided by robot manufacturers: Boston Dynamics (Spot SDK), ABB (RobotStudio), KUKA (RSI / KUKA Sunrise), Universal Robots (URCap / RTDE), Agility Robotics (Digit SDK), Apptronik (Apollo SDK).
NVIDIA GR00T cross-embodiment training — Fourier GR1 is one of the platforms on which demonstrations are collected for GR00T N1 training. Fourier Intelligence announced a partnership with NVIDIA at GTC 2025. Hugging Face LeRobot — GR1 is among the platforms supported by the LeRobot robot learning framework for imitation learning. Peking University robotics lab and Shanghai Jiao Tong University — FourierSDK is used in research projects on whole-body control and bimanual manipulation. Fourier Intelligence R&D — internal deployment of GR1/GR2 at the Shanghai laboratory for collecting household manipulation demonstrations for VLA model training. AI-driven demonstrations at trade shows — CES 2024, World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2024 Shanghai — GR1 with FourierSDK demonstrated autonomous manipulation task execution.
GitHub: fftai organisation — ~800 combined stars, ~150 forks, ~15 contributors (mainly internal team). Repositories: fourier-grx, fourier-ros2. Chinese community — active on WeChat developer groups for Fourier (a few hundred participants). Chinese-language documentation + English for partners. Academic partners — ~10 research groups in China use GR1 + FourierSDK as a platform for whole-body control, bimanual manipulation and robot learning research. Developer forum — GitHub Issues as the main support channel. Fourier Intelligence offers commercial technical support for enterprise customers. Growing global community after the NVIDIA GTC 2025 partnership announcement — increased interest from Western robotics labs.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 'Noble Numbat' — supported until April 2029. The host for ROS 2 Jazzy.
EtherCAT master required on the control PC for low-level motors. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS recommended. 1G Ethernet cable between control PC and robot unit.
License family: Permissive
License family: Proprietary – Commercial
GR2 support, new bimanual manipulation modules, integration with NVIDIA GR00T fine-tuning pipeline.
Refactored to gRPC-first architecture, new Teleop SDK with VR headset support, fourier_ros2 package for Humble/Jazzy.
MuJoCo and Isaac Sim simulators officially supported, GR Body SDK full kinematic chain API.
Arm SDK 7-DOF manipulator control, haptic teleoperation device support (Rokoko, HEBI).
First public release of FourierSDK for GR1. FSA Motor SDK, basic gait API.
Internal beta for research partners. Basic gRPC communication API.
