SimSpark is a generic simulation system for various multiagent simulations. It supports developing physical simulations for AI and robotics research with an

open-source application Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. O ...

framework. It is commonly used in academic research and education.

History

The SimSpark project started in 2003 and was based on the building blocks of the ''Spark'' project. It was initially developed by

Marco Kögler Marco may refer to: People * Marco (given name), people with the given name Marco * Marco (actor) (born 1977), South Korean model and actor * Georg Marco (1863–1923), Romanian chess player of German origin * Tomás Marco (born 1942), Spanish ...

and

Oliver Obst Oliver may refer to: Arts, entertainment and literature Books * ''Oliver the Western Engine'', volume 24 in ''The Railway Series'' by Rev. W. Awdry * ''Oliver Twist'', a novel by Charles Dickens Fictional characters * Ariadne Oliver ...

at the University of Koblenz-Landau in

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman military post by Drusus around 8 B.C. Its na ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. SimSpark was registered with

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research business software. It provides source code repository hosting, bug tracking, mirrori ...

in 2004 and has an established code base with development increasing year-over-year.https://www.ohloh.net/p/simspark/factoids/3252288

Architecture

Agents communicate with the simulation server via UDP or TCP, and therefore can be implemented in any language that supports such sockets. Multiple software agents can participate in one simulation. Simulations are created within the server using the

Ruby A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapp ...

language and text-based RSG files. SimSpark uses the

Open Dynamics Engine The Open Dynamics Engine (ODE) is a physics engine written in C/C++. Its two main components are a rigid body dynamics simulation engine and a collision detection engine. It is free software licensed both under the BSD license and the LGPL ...

(ODE) for detecting collisions and for simulating rigid body dynamics. ODE allows accurate simulation of the physical properties of objects such as velocity, inertia and friction.

Use in RoboCup

SimSpark is the simulation engine for the

RoboCup RoboCup is an annual international robotics competition founded in 1996 by a group of university professors (including Hiroaki Kitano, Manuela M. Veloso, and Minoru Asada). The aim of the competition is to promote robotics and AI research by of ...

3D Soccer Simulation League. In this simulation two teams play soccer with rules similar to regular soccer. The robots use simulated cameras and other sensors such as accelerometers, gyros and touch and audio sensors. Software agents process signals from these sensors (also known as ''perceptors'') and generate control signals for the 22 hinges within each robot's body in order to achieve whatever forms of motion are required to win a game of soccer. The original soccer robot model was known as ''soccerbot'', but since 2008 it has been replaced with a Nao robot inspired model.

References

{{Reflist

External links

SourceForge home page

SourceForge project page

SimSpark Wiki

SimSpark project on ohloh
Robotics simulation software Educational software 2003 software 2003 in robotics