An Approach to the Simulation of Robotic Systems Using Xml Based Configuration Files

This paper presents a environment using the eXtensible Markup Language ,XML, to describe a robotic systems in a format suitable for simulation, and to support the integration of several programming environments to create a flexible physical simulation system. Data exchange via open-standard based plain text files allows the system components to be loosely-coupled, rather than combined them into a single integrated development environment. This ensures that the most appropriate tools can be used for each component and the system can be extended with minimal disruption. Those parts of the system that require real-time data exchange use simple UNIX socket-based interactions, which are configured using shared XML configuration files. The environment is demonstrated by the simulation of a simple task using a SCARA robot. Keyword: Robotic simulation, modelling, XML