ROBOSIM: An intelligent simulator for robotic systems

The purpose of this paper is to present an update of an intelligent robotics simulator package, ROBOSIM, first introduced at Technology 2000 in 1990. ROBOSIM is used for three-dimensional geometrical modeling of robot manipulators and various objects in their workspace, and for the simulation of action sequences performed by the manipulators. Geometric modeling of robot manipulators has an expanding area of interest because it can aid the design and usage of robots in a number of ways, including: design and testing of manipulators, robot action planning, on-line control of robot manipulators, telerobotic user interface, and training and education. NASA developed ROBOSIM between 1985-88 to facilitate the development of robotics, and used the package to develop robotics for welding, coating, and space operations. ROBOSIM has been further developed for academic use by its co-developer Vanderbilt University, and has been in both classroom and laboratory environments for teaching complex robotic concepts. Plans are being formulated to make ROBOSIM available to all U.S. engineering/engineering technology schools (over three hundred total with an estimated 10,000+ users per year)

Simulation-based intelligent robotic agent for Space Station Freedom

A robot control package is described which utilizes on-line structural simulation of robot manipulators and objects in their workspace. The model-based controller is interfaced with a high level agent-independent planner, which is responsible for the task-level planning of the robot's actions. Commands received from the agent-independent planner are refined and executed in the simulated workspace, and upon successful completion, they are transferred to the real manipulators

Robot graphic simulation testbed

The objective of this research was twofold. First, the basic capabilities of ROBOSIM (graphical simulation system) were improved and extended by taking advantage of advanced graphic workstation technology and artificial intelligence programming techniques. Second, the scope of the graphic simulation testbed was extended to include general problems of Space Station automation. Hardware support for 3-D graphics and high processing performance make high resolution solid modeling, collision detection, and simulation of structural dynamics computationally feasible. The Space Station is a complex system with many interacting subsystems. Design and testing of automation concepts demand modeling of the affected processes, their interactions, and that of the proposed control systems. The automation testbed was designed to facilitate studies in Space Station automation concepts