Simulation notes and pages

Discussion about various simulation pages, requirements, strengths and weaknesses

Jump down to attached movies, etc.

Some packages:

• Robot Builder by Dave Orin at OSU.
  Used by Waldron's lab at SU for the galloping goat project. Dynamics calculations by DynaMechs
• RHexLib and SimSect are developed and used by the RHex project.
• ADAMS View has been used to model the dynamics of Sprawlita (vSprawl) and the Sprawlettes (example turning.avi)
• Autolev is another interesting modelling package
• Open Dynamics Engine - Open source rigid body simulation engine
• CMLabs Vortex engine - Commercial rigid body simulation library
• Adams - Commercial design/simulation package
• Darwin 2K - Open source simulator initially intended for evolutionary robot design
• SD/Fast - Symbolic dynamics package, but does not handle collisions/contact constraints
• Arachi - Commercial simulation library. Rich feature set but very new and somewhat immature.
• Gazebo - Just found this. Seems to be an open source rigid body simulation tool. Oops, seems to use ODE as its engine.
• more...

Technical Details:

• UlucSaranli 's review of commercial/open-source options: SimulationComparison
• OpenDiscussion about choice of our simulation package.

Bibliography:

• Brian Mirtich.Timewarp Rigid Body Simulation, MERL TR2000-17. (available online)

e-mail correspondence on the subject:

• An opening email from AlRizzi at CMU: AlsOpeningSimEmail
• NoahSimReply (by NoahCowan)
• TreyThoughts (by AMcClung)
• ShaiRevzen 's thoughts on SimSoftwareArch

-- MarkCutkosky - 06 Jun 2003

Notes and Log of Project Subgroup 4.1 - Simulation Tools:

• RiSEWorkingGroup4.1-SimulationToolRecommendations.txt: This is the PI-approved Simulation Tools Rationale

Discussion of Simulation Capabilities vs. Group Needs, for members of Subgroup 4.1 - Simulation Tools:

• SimCapabilities - organized by ClarkHaynes
• GroupNeeds - organized by JonathanClark
• Our hope is that we will eventually meet somewhere in between on capabilities and needs.

Creature Description Language (CDL)

• DesignReviewCDL - a very early definition of what roles the CDL will take
• CDLSandBox - a document with more-specific ideas for the CDL user interface

Parametric Contact Modeling (PCM)

• For an overview of various options for contact models, see ContactModeling
• DesignReviewPCM - Current state of PCM toolset design

Real-Time Interface (RTI)

• DesignReviewRTI - Current state of RTI layer design

Subgroup 4.1 Task and Timeline Updates:

• Due M2 (9/30) - DesignReviewCDL by ClarkHaynes