Accurate and Flexible Simulation for Dynamic, Vision-Centric Robot

As robots become more complex by incorporating dynamic stability or greater mechanical degrees of freedom, the difficulty of developing control algorithms directly on the robot increases. This is especially true for large or expensive robots, where damage is costly, or where communication bandwidth limits in-depth debugging. One effective solution to this problem is the use of a flexible, physically-accurate simulation environment which allows for experimentation with the physical composition and control systems of one or more robots in a controlled virtual setting. While many robot simulation environments are available today, we find that achieving accurate simulation of complex, vision-centric platforms such as the Segway RMP or Sony AIBO requires accurate modeling of latency and robust synchronization. Building on our previous work, we present an open-source simulation framework, ÜberSim, and demonstrate its ability to simulate vision-centric, balancing robots in a realistic fashi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: ATAL
• Authors: Jared Go, Brett Browning, Manuela M. Veloso
• Keywords: Accurate Simulation, ATAL 2004, Robot, Simulation Environment