The Case for a Realistic Mobile Robot Simulator

Abstract

Simulators used in research on autonomous mobile robots have been criticized for their tendency to change the nature of the problems the robot control architecture has to solve. In this paper we address those arguments, and find that under certain conditions simulators can be a valuable tool to supplement research with physical robots. We conclude with guidelines for the successful design and use of simulators in research on mobile robots. Introduction There is much active work in the field of robot control architectures for mobile robots. Some have chosen to supplement or replace work on physical robots with research using simulators--software programs designed to model the interaction of a robot with its environment. In some cases simulators are motivated strongly by the physical characteristics of a particular robot and environment. More often, simulators idealize and abstract certain parts of the problem. The use of simulators as a substitute for experiments with physical robots ...