Simulation Environments

[TheDuck]

FIRST POST!

Ok, that's out of the way.

Does anybody know of simulation environments for robotics? The projects I have planned need to have their programs "grown" and it would take just short of forever to do this in situ with robots.

Thank you for any suggestions or comments.

[Kevin Berry]

The folks at Embry Riddle at Daytona Beach are working extensively in this area. Their Engineering Physics dept has quite a suite of software in the area of swarm behaviour, linked modules, etc.

An email to them might be worthwhile.

[TheDuck]

Thanks, Kevin. I really appreciate it.

Regards,

Doug

[TheDuck]

Ok, so Embry Riddle DB is HUGE. Can you suggest a person or even department that I might contact?

Again, thank you for any suggestions and your time.

Regards,

Doug

[Anonymous]

OK the man is Prof. Jack McKisson at the Daytona Campus. If you will email me via my forum profile I will hook you up with his address, plus email you an EXHAUSTIVE writeup on his project.

[GoRobotics.net]

Have you check out the Player/Stage project on Sourceforge?

http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/

There was at least one team using it at last years AUVSI Underwater Vehicle Competition.

I haven't looked extinsively at it, but they spoke highly of it.

-William

[TheDuck]

I have now! ;)

Thank you, William. I would like to take the approach used in the book Evolutionary Robotics but needed a simulation environment to 'breed' the control programs.

Seeing the Gumstix with WiFi, suggested in another post (http://www.botmag.com/bulletin/viewtopic.php?t=40), opens up some opportunities for 'swarming' them, too.

Thanks,

Doug

[Anonymous]

Well, let us know how it goes. Have you seen the GumStix in the LEGO brick?
That's pretty nifty.

http://armyofevilrobots.com/node/378

[TheDuck]

I have! That's what the referenced post in my post is linked to. Certainly is a nice alternative to the regular brick. Although I'm not so sure I'm that industrious to make the entire thing from scratch. I think I would have just taken my Dremel to some other unfortunate pieces or simply wedged/duck-taped/bubble-gummed that in otherwise. :)

[Daveman]

There was at least one team using it at last years AUVSI Underwater Vehicle Competition.

Would you happen to know who? All though I guess I could look through their papers...

[GoRobotics.net]

No, sorry, I don't remember who, exactly.

However, you can view all the team sites here:

http://www.auvsi.org/competitions/2005/05finalstandings.cfm

I know it wasn't MIT, Cornell, Duke, NCSU, of UF. Hope that helps some.
-William

[dlb]

Simulation and Automated Synthesis for Robotics
http://darwin2k.sourceforge.net/index.php#movies

FE Physics simulation
http://www.design-simulation.com/WM2D/index.php
*IIRC their free demo licenses are restricted but functional

[Daveman]

No, sorry, I don't remember who, exactly.

Found 'em. It was University of Colorado @ Denver who used Player/Stage. I'll have to talk to them at the 9th annual AUV competition (in the beginning of August) to find out what they thought of it.

[dlb]

Modulobe is a physical simulation system for constructing virtual creatures.
http://www.modulobe.com/Modulobe.html

* still beta, but functional and easy to use. Most docs are in Japanese.

http://www.modulobe.com/ModulobeJa.files/crawl.gif