Who is this article relevant to?
This article is for anyone who wants to know more about the Rokoko SDK
Which plans is this article relevant for?
SDK access
What is the Rokoko Device SDK
The Rokoko Device SDK gives developers direct, low-latency access to motion data from Rokoko hardware — without going through Rokoko Studio. If you're building your own pipeline for robotics, teleoperation, research, or motion analysis, the SDK is the way to talk to the devices themselves.
Who is it for?
The SDK is aimed at developers and technical teams who want to integrate
Rokoko devices into their own applications. Typical use cases include:
-
Robotics and teleoperation — retarget hand and body sensors to robot
models in real time. -
Research — capture raw sensor and 3D positional data for motion
analysis in your own coordinate frame. -
Custom pipelines — route high-frequency motion data into your own
tools, apps, and runtime systems, including Arm64 edge devices
If you just want to record and export motion capture data, on a solved skeleton, Rokoko Studio is
likely a better fit — the SDK is for building things.
What data do you get?
-
Raw sensor data — accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer readings
from every sensor node. -
Orientations — quaternion-based orientation for each sensor, ready for
retargeting. - 3D positions — positional data for all EMF-tracked sensors.
-
Device control and events — discovery, connection handling,
subscriptions, LED control, button events, and firmware updates.
How does it work?
The SDK ships with a small executable called the **SDK driver**. The driver
discovers connected devices (over USB or Wi-Fi) and exposes them to your
application over two TCP/IP protocols:
-
RCSP (Rokoko Command Server Protocol) — send commands, receive
responses and events: list devices, configure networking, subscribe to
button presses, run firmware updates, and more. -
RGMP (Rokoko General Motion Protocol) — a binary protocol for
high-performance, low-latency streaming of live motion data.
Because everything runs over TCP/IP, you can integrate from any language
that can open a socket — Python, C/C++, JavaScript, or anything else. The
SDK includes C/C++ headers, runnable Python examples, and browser-based
reference apps.
Prerequisites
- A supported Windows, macOS, or Linux machine
- A terminal for your platform
- Python 3.12 or later (for running the examples)
To install and access the SDK, you need a dedicated SDK license from Rokoko. If you do not have such a license, please contact our team at sales@rokoko.com or request access here.
With a license in hand, the Quick Start guide takes you from installation to
listing your first connected device in a few minutes.
Process
The Quick start guide and all the information about the Rokoko device SDK can be found here: https://sdk.rokoko.com/.
Where to learn more?
The documentation site covers the full journey:
- Quick Start — install the SDK, run the driver, and connect a device.
-
Guides — Wi-Fi setup, streaming data, calibration, hand solving,
firmware updates, and CLI usage. -
Examples — runnable Python scripts and browser apps for commands,
streaming, LED control, button events, and firmware updates, hand solving. -
Reference — the RCSP and RGMP v2 protocol specifications, plus
per-product details like reference frames and feature support.