Survey about dynamic simulators for robotics

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Nov-2013

THIS SURVEY IS OVER !

Results will be published soon; you can contact Serena Ivaldi for more information (serena.ivaldi@isir.upmc.fr).
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Jan-2014

I'm keeping the survey online, to give to new participants the possibility to share their feedback about simulators.
If you are interested in getting the analysis of the survey, you can write me: serena.ivaldi@isir.upmc.fr
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Thank you for participating to this anonymous survey!

We are interested in investigating which dynamics simulator/s you are currently using for your research in robotics.
Are you satisfied with it/them? What are its/their main pros and cons? What is your experience with simulation?
What are desirable features that your are missing?

Please help us!

The survey is organized into four sections:
1) info about you (don't worry the survey is anonymous, it's just stats)
2) your experience with simulation in general
3) info about the main tool you are using for simulation
4) more technical information about the tool (if you can't answer or you're in doubt, select "i don't know")

There will be free space to tell us freely your opinion about the tool/the tools you use.
The survey is anonymous, so say yours about pros/cons!

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If you have problems filling the questionnaire, please write to: serena.ivaldi@isir.upmc.fr
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Ready? Go!

	never heard of	known, but never used	used once, just to test it	used then abandoned	currently used, just to test it	currently used, but not the main tool	currently used, and it's the main tool
ODE
Bullets
OpenRave
Gazebo
Nvidia PhysX
OpenSIM
Stage
Usarsim
Morse
Webots

	never heard of	known, but never used	used once, just to test it	used then abandoned	currently used, just to test it	currently used, but not the main tool	currently used, and it's the main tool
Delta3D
V-Rep
Sim
OpenHRP
Chorenoid
XDE
HumanS
Robotran
MuJoCo
iCub_SIM

	never heard of	known, but never used	used once, just to test it	used then abandoned	currently used, just to test it	currently used, but not the main tool	currently used, and it's the main tool
Arboris-Python
ADAMS
SL
metapod
Blender
COMSOL
Dance
dVC3d
MBSim
Moby
Siconos
SOFA

	never heard of	known, but never used	used once, just to test it	used then abandoned	currently used, just to test it	currently used, but not the main tool	currently used, and it's the main tool
Solfec
Animats
Rigid Body Dynamics Library
Havok
SIMPACK
Vortex
Umbra
SIMBAD
Box2D
RoboRobo

	1 (insufficient)	2 (scarse)	3 (neutral)	4 (good)	5 (very good)
The documentation: is the doc available? is it online?
Is there enough support? Mailing-lists, forums?
Installation: was it easy to install? Did it require a lot of dependencies?
For beginners: is it easy to start using it? Are there tutorials?
Advanced level: is it easy to use?
Is it an active project? Is there a large community of users and developers?
Is the API user-friendly?

Survey about dynamic simulators for robotics

Some info about you

Your experience with dynamics simulation

Your dynamics simulation tool

Now few more technical questions

This is the end of the survey! Thank you for participating! Now you can submit your answers!

	Not important at all	Not important	Neutral	Important	Very important, crucial
Stability of simulation
Precision of simulation
Speed
Computational load (CPU)
Computational load (Memory)
Visual rendering
Same interface between real and simulated system
Accuracy of contact resolution

	Does not apply to my case	Never happens	Happens sometimes, but not critical for my simulations	Happens sometimes, causes failures	When happens, it is critical - limits the use of the tool
Interpenetration between bodies
Detaching bodies
Contacts are not realistic
Collisions are not detected properly
Difficulty in simulating non-rigid bodies, surfaces
Difficulty in simulating human activity
Difficulty in simulating the dynamic environment
Difficulty in customizing the simulation
Lack of documentation to handle problems
Difficulty in simulating fast and dynamic motions
Gap between simulation and reality
Computationally slow
Computationally demanding