Proposal of Mobile Robot Simulator Using VR Technology and Its Application to View-Based Robot Navigation.

Abstract

Simulation is an important issue in the robotics research field since it is essential for evaluating and predicting the behavior of a robot. However previously developed simulation systems did not have the function of simulating the visual perception process of the robot. This means that a vision-based behavior cannot be simulated. In this paper, we first propose a novel approach using VR technology to simulate the vision-based behavior of a robot. Then the implemented system called “View Simulation System (VSS) ”, which was designed to simulate the behavior of our view-based navigation method is described. The VSS has a CG generator and a vision processing hardware, and can run the same program as one for our mobile robot. Finally the feasibility of VSS is shown through experiments using the real robot.