A 3D robot simulation for education

Abstract

This paper describes the work-in-progress of creating an artificial 3D environment and robot, suitable for educational simulation. A visual 3D vehicle robot, equipped with a monocular camera navigates in a physics based 3D environment, with some artificial intelligence capabilities. Students can interact with the robot, add new objects and set the robot various tasks. This multimedia tool is designed for students with very little experience with robotics, and aims at giving students unlimited access to a relatively sophisticated robotic system, incorporating artificial intelligence, with an extremely low cost compared to using real robot systems. Our current version of the simulation software has been designed to perform three main tasks, play soccer, avoid object, and wander. The simulation is being designed to closely resemble its real-world counterparts, and we hope, will ultimately become a powerful research and development tool.