ABSTRACT
Mention the topic robot simulation, and, like many phrases, it means many different things to different people. To some practitioners, the simulation of robotic systems covers the visualization of how a robot moves through its environment. These simulators are heavily based on CAD and graphical visualization tools. In some cases, there is a man-machine interface so that the human can interact with the simulation. Likewise, to some, robot simulation covers the numerical simulation of the dynamics, sensing, and control of robots. Instead of having an interface that consists of three-dimensional (3D) graphical objects, these simulators consist of software commands and/or graphical tools used to construct block diagrams of the system. No matter the definition, simulation allows the practitioner to design and test robots in a variety of environments for a fraction of the time and cost of building real systems.
