No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Survey and comparative study of free simulation software for mobile robots
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 July 2014
Summary
Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.
In robotics, simulation has become an essential tool for research, education, and design purposes. Various software tools for mobile robot simulation have been developed and have reached different levels of maturity in recent years. This paper presents a general survey of mobile robot simulation tools and discusses qualitative and quantitative aspects of selection of four major simulators publicly available at no cost: Carmen, Player-Stage-Gazebo, Open Dynamics Engine, and Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio. The comparison of the simulators is aimed at establishing the range of applications for which these are best suited as well as their accuracy for certain simulation tasks. The simulators chosen for detailed comparison were selected considering their level of maturity, modularity, and popularity among engineers and researchers. The qualitative comparison included a discussion of relevant features. The quantitative analysis entailed the development of a detailed dynamical model of a mobile robot on a road with varying slope. This model was used as benchmark to compare the accuracy of each simulator. The validity of the simulated results was also contrasted against measurements obtained from experiments with a real robot. This research and analysis should be very valuable to educators, engineers, and researchers who are always seeking adequate tools for simulating autonomous mobile robots.
Information
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014
References
1.Anitescu, M. and Potra, F. A., “Formulating dynamic multi-rigid-body contact problems with friction as solvable linear complementarity problems,” Nonlinear Dyn. 14, 231–247 (1997).Google Scholar
2.Baraff, D., “Linear-Time Dynamics Using Lagrange Multipliers,” Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH '96), New Orleans, LA, USA (Aug. 4–9, 1996) pp. 137–146.Google Scholar
3.Carpin, S., Lewis, M., Wang, J., Balakirsky, S. and Scrapper, C., “USARSim: A Robot Simulator for Research and Education,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2007, Roma, Italy (Apr. 10–14, 2007) pp. 1400–1405.Google Scholar
4.Castillo-Pizarro, P., Arredondo-Vidal, T. and Torres-Torriti, M., “Introductory Survey to Open-Source Mobile Robot Simulation Software,” Proceedings of the 2010 Latin American Robotics Symposium and Intelligent Robotic Meeting (LARS), Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil (Oct. 2010) pp. 150–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Chatterjee, A. and Ruina, A., “A new algebraic rigid-body collision law based on impulse space considerations,” J. Appl. Mech. 65 (4), 939–951 (1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Chiang, L. E., “Teaching robotics with a reconfigurable 3D multibody dynamics simulator,” Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ. 18 (1), 108–116 (2010).Google Scholar
7.Cohen, J. D., Lin, M. C., Manocha, D. and Ponamgi, M., “I-COLLIDE: Qn Interactive and Exact Collision Detection System for Large-Scale Environments,” Proceedings of the 1995 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics (I3D '95), Monterey, CA, USA (Apr. 9–12, 1995) pp. 189–196.Google Scholar
8.Corke, P. I., “A robotics toolbox for MATLAB,” IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag. 3 (1), 24–32 (Mar. 1996).Google Scholar
9.Daza, I. G., Pascual, L. M. B., Vazquez, M. A. S., Guillen, E. L., Navarro, R. B. and Vazquez, L. B., “Low Level Control in States Space for the Pioneer,” In: Proceedings of the the 2005 International Conference on Computer as a Tool (EUROCON 2005), Vol. 1, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro (Nov. 21–24, 2005) pp. 322–325. IEEE, New Jersey, USA.Google Scholar
10.de Jalón, J. García and Bayo, E., Kinematic and Dynamic Simulation of Multibody Systems: The Real-Time Challenge (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 1994).Google Scholar
11.Delp, S. L., Anderson, F. C., Arnold, A. S., Loan, P., Habib, A., John, C. T., Guendelman, E. and Thelen, D. G., “Opensim: Open-source software to create and analyze dynamic simulations of movement,” IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 54 (11), 1940–1950 (Nov. 2007).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12.Diankov, R. and Kuffner, J., “Openrave: A Planning Architecture for Autonomous Robotics,” Technical Report CMU-RI-TR-08-34, Robotics Institute, Pittsburgh, PA (Jul. 2008).Google Scholar
13.Drumwright, E., Hsu, J., Koenig, N. and Shell, D., “Extending Open Dynamics Engine for Robotics Simulation,” In: Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 6472 (Ando, N., Balakirsky, S., Hemker, T., Reggiani, M. and von Stryk, O., eds.) (Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2010) pp. 38–50.Google Scholar
14.Eberly, D. H., Game Physics. (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3D Technology), 2nd ed. (Elsevier, New York, NY, Apr. 2010).Google Scholar
15.Elkady, A. and Sobh, T., “Robotics middleware: A comprehensive literature survey and attribute-based bibliography,” J. Robot. 2012, 15 (2012), Article ID 959013.Google Scholar
16.Erleben, K., “Module-Based Design for Rigid Body Simulators,” Technical Report DIKU 02/06, Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (2002).Google Scholar
17.Eroglu, M., “Computer simulation of robot dynamics,” Robotica 16 (6), 615–621 (1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19.Folgado, E., Rincón, M., Álvarez, J. R. and Mira, J., “A Multi-Robot Surveillance System Simulated in Gazebo,” In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Work-conference on Nature-Inspired Problem-Solving Methods in Knowledge Engineering: Interplay Between Natural and Artificial Computation, Part II IWINAC '07) (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 2007) pp. 202–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20.Gerkey, B. P., Vaughan, R. T. and Howard, A., “The Player/Stage Project: Tools for Multi-Robot and Distributed Sensor Systems,” Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Advanced Robotics, Coimbra, Portugal (Jun. 30–Jul. 3, 2003) pp. 317–323.Google Scholar
21.Harris, A. and Conrad, J. M., “Survey of Popular Robotics Simulators, Frameworks, and Toolkits,” Proceedings of IEEE SoutheastCon, 2011, Nashville, TN, USA (Mar. 17–20, 2011) pp. 243–249.Google Scholar
22.Huag, E. J., Computer-Aided Kinematics and Dynamics of Mechanical Systems: Basic Methods, Allyn and Bacon Series in Engineering (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1989).Google Scholar
23.Hugues, L. and Bredeche, N., “Simbad: An Autonomous Robot Simulation Package for Education and Research,” In: SAB, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 4095 (Nolfi, S., Baldassarre, G., Calabretta, R., Hallam, J. C. T., Marocco, D., Meyer, J.-A., Miglino, O. and Parisi, D., eds.) (Springer, New York, NY, 2006) pp. 831–842.Google Scholar
24.Jazar, R. N., Vehicle Dynamics: Theory and Application (Springer, New York, NY, 2008).Google Scholar
25.Johns, K. and Taylor, T., Professional Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (Wrox, Indianapolis, IN, 2008).Google Scholar
26.Klein, J., “Breve: A 3D Environment for the Simulation of Decentralized Systems and Artificial Life,” Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Artificial Life (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2002), pp. 329–334.Google Scholar
27.Kobayashi, K., Uchida, Y. and Watanabe, K., “A Study of Battle Strategy for the Robocode,” In: Proceedings of the SICE 2003 Annual Conference, Vol. 3, Fukui, Japan (Aug. 4–6, 2003) pp. 3373–3376. IEEE, New Jersey, USA.Google Scholar
28.Kovačić, Z., Bogdan, S., Petrinec, K., Reichenbach, T. and Punčec, M., “Leonardo – The Off-line Programming Tool for Robotized Plants,” Proceedings of the 9th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, Jun. 27–29, Dubrovnik, Croatia (Jun. 2001).Google Scholar
29.Kumar, K. and Singh, P. Reel, “Analysis of Contemporary Robotics Simulators,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Emerging Trends in Electrical and Computer Technology (ICETECT), 2011, Tamil Nadu, India (Mar. 23–24, 2011) pp. 661–665.Google Scholar
30.Magyar, B., Forhecz, Z. and Korondi, P., “Developing an Efficient Mobile Robot Control Algorithm in the Webots Simulation Environment,” In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology, 2003, Vol. 1, Maribor, Slovenia (Dec. 10–12, 2003) pp. 179–184.Google Scholar
31.Marhefka, D. W. and Orin, D. E., “Xanimate: An educational tool for robot graphical simulation,” IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag. 3 (2), 6–14 (Jun. 1996).Google Scholar
32.Marhefka, D. W. and Orin, D. E., “A compliant contact model with nonlinear damping for simulation of robotic systems,” IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. 29 (6), 566–572 (Nov. 1999).Google Scholar
33.McMillan, S., Orin, D. E. and McGhee, R. B., “Object-oriented Design of a Dynamic Simulation for Underwater Robotic Vehicles,” Proceedings of the 1995 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 1995, Vol. 2, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan (May 21–27, 1995) pp. 1886–1893.Google Scholar
34.Miller, A. T. and Allen, P. K., GraspIt! A versatile simulator for robotic grasping. IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag. 11 (4), 110–122 (Dec. 2004).Google Scholar
35.Mirtich, B. V., Impulse-Based Dynamic Simulation of Rigid Body Systems Ph.D. Thesis (University of California, Berkeley, CA, Dec. 1996).Google Scholar
36.Murray, R. M., Sastry, S. S. and Zexiang, L., A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation, 1st ed. (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1994).Google Scholar
37.Nethery, J. F. and Spong, M. W., “Robotica: A Mathematica package for robot analysis,” IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag. 1 (1), 13–20 (Mar. 1994).Google Scholar
38.Rahim, A., Teo, J. and Saudi, A., “An Empirical Comparison of Code Size Limit in Auto-Constructive Artificial Life,” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems, 2006, Bangkok, Thailand (Jun. 7–9, 2006) pp. 1–6.Google Scholar
39.Reichenbach, T., “A dynamic simulator for humanoid robots,” Artif. Life Robot. 13, 561–565 (2009).Google Scholar
40.Rodenbaugh, S. J. and Orin, D. E., “Robotbuilder User's Guide, ver. 1.0.,” Technical Report, Department of Electrical Engineering (The Ohio State University, Ohio, May 2003).Google Scholar
41.Rohmer, E., Singh, S. P. N. and Freese, M., “V-REP: A Versatile and Scalable Robot Simulation Framework,” Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Tokyo, Japan, November 3–7, 2013 (Nov. 2013) pp. 1321–1326.Google Scholar
42.Ros, J., Yoldi, R., Plaza, A. and Iriarte, X., “Real-time Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation of a Hexaglide-Type Parallel Manipulator on a Real Machine Controller,” In: ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics 2011 (Samin, J. C. and Fisette, P., eds.), Brussels, Belgium (European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS), 2011) pp. 1–11.Google Scholar
43.Rusu, R. B., Holzbach, A., Diankov, R., Bradski, G. and Beetz, M., “Perception for Mobile Manipulation and Grasping Using Active Stereo,” Proceedings of the 9th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, 2009, Paris, France (Dec. 7–9, 2009) pp. 632–638.Google Scholar
44.Son, W., Kim, K., Amato, N. M. and Trinkle, J. C., “A Generalized Framework for Interactive Dynamic Simulation for Multirigid Bodies,” IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. 34 (2), 912–924 (Apr. 2004).Google Scholar
45.Stewart, D. and Trinkle, J. C., “An Implicit Time-Stepping Scheme for Rigid Body Dynamics with Coulomb Friction,” In: Proceedings of the ICRA IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2000, Vol. 1, San Francisco, CA, USA (Apr. 24–28, 2000) pp. 162–169. IEEE, New Jersey, USA.Google Scholar
46.Stewart, D. E., “Rigid-body dynamics with friction and impact,” SIAM Rev. 42 (1), 3–39 (2000).Google Scholar
47.Tang, M., Manocha, D., Lin, J. and Tong, R., “Collision-streams: Fast GPU-based Collision Detection for Deformable Models,” Proceedings of the Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games (I3D '11), San Francisco, CA, USA (Feb. 18–20, 2011) pp. 63–70.Google Scholar
48.Vaughan, R. T. and Gerkey, B. P., “Really Reusable Robot Code and the Player/Stage Project,” In: Software Engineering for Experimental Robotics, Berlin, Germany (2006) pp. 267–289. Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
49.Walker, M. W. and Orin, D. E., “Efficient dynamic computer simulation of robotic mechanisms,” J. Dyn. Syst. Meas. Control 104 (3), 205–211 (1982).Google Scholar
50.Wang, J., Gosselin, C. M. and Cheng, L., “Modeling and simulation of robotic systems with closed kinematic chains using the virtual spring approach,” Multibody Syst. Dyn. 7, 145–170 (2002).Google Scholar
52.Yamane, K. and Nakamura, Y., “Stable Penalty-Based Model of Frictional Contacts,” Proceedings of 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2006), Orlando, FL, USA (May 15–19, 2006) pp. 1904–1909.Google Scholar
53.Ylikorpi, T., Peralta, J.-L. and Halme, A., “Comparing passive walker simulators in MATLAB and ADAMS,” J. Struct. Mech. 44 (1), 65–92 (2011).Google Scholar
54.Zagal, J. C., Ruiz-Del-Solar, J. and Vallejos, P., “Back to Reality: Crossing the Reality Gap in Evolutionary Robotics,” Proceedings of the 5th IFAC Symposium on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles, Lisbon, Portugal (Jul. 5–7, 2004) pp. 1–9.Google Scholar
55.Zhen, Z., Qixin, C., Lo, C. and Lei, Z., “A CORBA-based simulation and control framework for mobile robots,” Robotica 27 (3), 459–468 (2009).Google Scholar
56.Žlajpah, L., “Simulation in robotics,” Math. Comput. Simul. 79 (4), 879–897 (2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
58.Carmen: Carnegie Mellon Robot Navigation Toolkit. Available at: http://carmen.sourceforge.net/ (accessed July 2, 2014).Google Scholar
59.Cogmation robotics. Available at: http://www.cogmation.com/ (accessed July 2, 2014).Google Scholar
60.Energid. Available at: http://www.energid.com/actin-simulation-advantages.htm (accessed July 2, 2014).Google Scholar
61.EyerSim. Available at: http://robotics.ee.uwa.edu.au/eyebot/doc/sim/sim.html (accessed July 2, 2014).Google Scholar
62.Torers-Torriti, M., Arredondo, T. and Castillo-Pizarro, P., Installation instructions for Carmen, Gazebo and Open Dynamics Engine. Available at: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/arsproject/ (accessed July 2, 2014).Google Scholar
65.ODE: Open Dynamics Engine. Available at: http://www.ode.org/, http://opende.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/ (accessed July 2, 2014).Google Scholar
68.OpenSim. Available at: http://opensimulator.sourceforge.net/ (accessed July 2, 2014).Google Scholar
70.PSG: Player-Stage-Gazebo. Available at: http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/, http://gazebosim.org/ (accessed July 2, 2014).Google Scholar
74.USARSim. Available at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/usarsim/ (accessed July 2, 2014).Google Scholar
76.Metta, G., Fitzpatrick, P. and Natal, L., YARP: Yet another robot platform. http://eris.liralab.it/yarp/ (accessed July 2, 2014).Google Scholar
You have
Access
- 20
- Cited by