Robotics Simulator [closed]

Answer 1

peekabot is not a simulator, only a visualization tool, and to some extent a tool to control your robot interactively. It's a good match for use in conjunction with a simulator without its own visualization, though.

MRPT doesn't have a (complete) simulator AFAIK, only algorithms, interfaces, drivers and its own log format. Besides that, it looks neat.

OpenRAVE might be worth checking out if you're interested in planning.

Gazebo wasn't really mature and stable enough last I tried it (~1 year ago). Might be worth to check out though.

Stage is simple to use, provided that you need only a 2D simulator without dynamics.

I've used both ODE and Bullet for robotics simulations, and both worked okay although I would recommend ODE.

To get a more definitive answer you need to refine your requirements -- i.e. are you looking for a simulator only or something more like ROS, do you need a 3D simulator with dynamics or only 2D, how accurate must it be, what sensors do you want to simulate, etc.

Answer 2

I've been programming against SimSpark. It's the open-source simulation engine behind the RoboCup 3D Simulated Soccer League.

It's extensible for different simulations. You can plug in your own sensors, actuators and models using C++, Ruby and/or RSG (Ruby Scene Graph) files.

I don't know if it's the best simulator, but I've enjoyed using it.

EDIT In response to Arkapravo's comment.

I have written a .NET API for writing your own RoboCup 3D agents called TinMan.

There are a bunch of videos on YouTube of simulated 3D soccer matches. This is one of my favourites.

RoboCup 2010 is taking place this week in Singapore, though unfortunately I won't be able to make it.

RoboCup 3D runs on a physical simulation engine called SimSpark. It has a comprehensive Wiki with lots of information explaining how it all works.

My agent is still quite primitive, so I don't have anything published about it just yet. There are plenty of open source agent implementations in different languages if you're interested.

Answer 3

Breve has been used to simulate robots that have been physically implemented. Breve is driven by ODE.

Answer 4

I came across Fawkes online today:

http://www.fawkesrobotics.org/

Fawkes is a component-based Software Framework for Robotic Real-Time Applications for various Platforms and Domains.

Developed and used over four years for cognitive robotics real-time applications like soccer and service robotics. It supports fast information exchange and efficient combination and coordination of different components to suit the needs of mobile robots operating in uncertain environments.

It's open source too (GPL).

Answer 5

A really great option that I recommend is Cogmation's RobotSim. They also have another product RobotBuilder that let's you build any robot you can imagine, and even import your own models.

Answer 6

It sounds like all you need is a 2D simulator. So i would avoid the overhead and headaches of a 3D simulator. Some notes on your choices:

1. Player includes a 2D simulator (Stage) and a 3D physics simulator (Gazeebo) which i think uses ODE

2. MRDS includes a 3D physics simulator by PhysX

3. ROS is only an architecture and i don't believe it has its own simulator. although it does have some different visualization tools. it also wraps Player.

Another popular simulator / architecture is WeBots. But i think that is only 3D.

That's all i know. Good luck. -Ben