Adequate motion simulation and collision detection for soccer playing humanoid robots

In this paper a humanoid robot simulator built with the Multi-Robot-Simulation-Framework (MuRoSimF) is presented. Among the unique features of the this simulator is the scalability in the level of physical detail in both the robot’s motion and sensing systems. It facilitates the development of control software for humanoid robots which is demonstrated for several scenarios from the RoboCup Humanoid Robot League. Different requirements exist for a humanoid robot simulator. E.g., testing of algorithms for motion control and postural stability require high fidelity of physical motion properties where as testing of behavior control and role distribution for a robot team requires only a moderate level of detail for real-time simulation of multiple robots. To meet such very different requirements often different simulators are used which makes it neccessary to model a robot multiple times and to integrate different simulations with high-level robot control software. MuRoSimF provides the capability of exchanging the simulation algorithms used for each robot transparently, thus allowing a trade-off between computational performance and fidelity of the simulation. It is therfore possible to choose different simulation algorithms which are adequate for the needs of a given simulation experiment, for example, motion simulation of humanoid robots based on kinematical, simplified dynamics or full multibody system dynamics algorithms. In this paper the sensor simulation capabilities of MuRoSimF are revised and the algorithms for motion simulation and collision detection and handling are presented in detail. An algorithm is presented which allows the real time simulation of the full dynamics of a 21 DOF humanoid robot. Special consideration is given to the merits and drawbacks of the different algorithms depending on the scenario. The simulation’s performance is measured and comparisons with the experimental performance of the humanoid robots are given.