Darwin2K: Simulation and automated synthesis for robotics

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Darwin2k

Simulation and Automated Synthesis for Robotics

Latest news: 2/4/2002 Darwin2K 0.90 has been released. Darwin2K (like dyno) now supports multiple robots, and there have been a number of other changes/additions as well.

Darwin2K is a free, open source dynamic simulation and automated design synthesis package for robotics. To get an idea of what Darwin2K can do; take a look at the movies below. Darwin2K's simulation capabilities are tailored to support engineering design and controller prototyping for robotic application; for example, detailed motor and gearhead performance models are included, as is the capability to estimate stresses in structural elements during simulation.

Darwin2K is not just a low-level dynamic simulation package: it also includes a number of controllers, robot modules, and other components that are useful in a wide range of robot design and programming applications. Additionally, the system includes a distributed evolutionary algorithm for automated synthesis and optimization; this was the focus of my graduate research with Darwin2K at CMU's Robotics Institute. See this page for publications related to Darwin2K if you're interested in using Darwin2K for automated design.

Illustration by Jason Bannister

Simulator screen shots

Movies

hexWalker.mpeg - A six-legged walker being dropped onto rough terrain. Courtesy of Rudiger Koch.
ramp2.qt - a QuickTime movie demonstrating dynamic simulation with frictional contact for a rocker-bogie rover going off a ramp.
srr2k-reduced.mpg (5.5MB) - an MPEG showing dynamic simulation of a small rover with articulated suspension.
ATEcliff.mpeg (13MB) - Simulation of a tethered robot for cliff-descent. Project home page
umb.mpeg (2.4MB) - An MPEG from Mike Craft of Dynamic Concepts, Inc. simulating a prototype pipe-crawling robot.
ff10-8.qt (12MB) - Shows a 2-armed free-flying robot synthesized by Darwin2K for a satellite servicing task
clamshell-Mars.mpeg - A recording of the simulation used for performance evaluation of an inflatable rover at JPL (see this page for other project information.)
inf1.mpg - Another inflatable rover movie.
inf3.mpg - A rocker-bogie rover with inflatable wheels.
infHazCam.mpg - A view from the rover-mounted cameras as the rover drives over rough terrain.

Downloads

RTC headers, libraries, and binaries. gzipped tar file or bzip2'd tar file

Documentation

Reference manual - This is a work in progress, automatically generated from the source code by Doc++. Most of the core classes are currently covered.
tutorial.pdf - A tutorial for getting started with Darwin2k.
thesis.pdf - My thesis, describing and characterizing the algorithms, theory, and performance of Darwin2k.
An expanded and updated version of my thesis, published by Kluwer.

What is Darwin2K?

Darwin2K is a free, open-source toolkit for robot simulation and automated design. It features numerous simulation capabilities and an evolutionary algorithm capable of automatically synthesizing and optimizing robot designs to meet task-specific performance objectives.

Simulation capabilities

Kinematic simulation
Dynamic simulation (forward and inverse), including simulation closed kinematic chains, joint limits, and limited contact
Modular simulator architecture allows simulation components to be activated and configured at runtime.
Collision detection
Estimation of link deflection
Several robot control algorithms, including PID joint control, Jacobian (Singularity-Robust Inverse) control, and SRI with dynamics for free-flying manipulators
Robots can be built at runtime from parameterized modules, and new module types can be added.
Modules can use components from a database that includes motors and gearheads from Maxon, and harmonic drives from HD Systems
OpenGL and OpenInventor display drivers

Automated synthesis

Distributed evoluationary algorithm can synthesize and optimize robot kinematics (topology and dimensions), dynamics, components, and controller parameters with respect to multiple user-selected performance metrics
Robot performance is assessed through simulation
Scope of synthesizer can be restricted by partially specifying robot parameters and/or topology
- Allows coarse-to-fine synthesis
- Easily incorporate a-priori knowledge in designs
- Simple interface for specifying multiple metrics and criteria

System requirements

The system has been tested under Irix 6.x and Linux; a Solaris port is forthcoming. Darwin2K requires several other packages:

X windows
OpenGL, MesaGL, or OpenInventor
xforms
perl >= 5 is strongly recommended