The Journal of Korea Robotics Society (로봇학회논문지)

Korea Robotics Society (한국로봇학회)
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Performance Evaluation of Robotic Physics Engine for Mobile Manipulator Simulation

모바일 매니퓰레이터 시뮬레이션을 위한 로봇 물리 엔진의 성능 평가

  • Kwanwoo Lee (Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University) ;
  • Junheon Yoon (Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University) ;
  • Suhan Park (Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University) ;
  • Jaeheung Park (Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Korea and Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology)
  • Received : 2023.10.31
  • Accepted : 2023.11.05
  • Published : 2024.02.29
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Abstract

A mobile manipulator is capable of handling a wide range of workspaces by overcoming the limitations of mobility inherent in existing fixed-base manipulators. To simulate the mobile manipulator, two contact operations should be considered in the physics engines. One of these operations is the grasp stability between the gripper and the object, while the other involves the contact between the wheels of the mobile robot and the ground during driving. However, it is still difficult to choose an appropriate physics engine for simulating these contact operations of the mobile manipulator. In this paper, the performance of physics engines for simulating the mobile manipulator is evaluated. Firstly, the grasp stability of the physics engine is quantitatively evaluated based on the contact force discontinuity. Secondly, when the mobile robot is controlled by open or closed-loop control methods, differences in the path taken by the mobile robot depending on the physics engine are analyzed. To assess the performance of robot simulation, three dynamic simulators-MuJoCo, CoppeliaSim, and IsaacSim-are used along with five physics engines: MuJoCo, Newton, ODE, Bullet, and PhysX.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT)

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