Webots is a free and open-source 3D robot simulator used in industry, education and research. The Webots project started in 1996, initially developed by Dr. Olivier Michel at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ( EPFL) in

Lausanne Lausanne ( , , , ) ; it, Losanna; rm, Losanna. is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and fac ...

, Switzerland and then from 1998 by Cyberbotics Ltd. as a proprietary licensed software. Since December 2018, it is released under the free and open-source Apache 2 license. Webots includes a large collection of freely modifiable models of robots, sensors, actuators and objects. In addition, it is also possible to build new models from scratch or import them from 3D CAD software. When designing a robot model, the user specifies both the graphical and the physical properties of the objects. The graphical properties include the shape, dimensions, position and orientation, colors, and texture of the object. The physical properties include the mass, friction factor, as well as the spring and damping constants. Simple fluid dynamics is present in the software. Webots uses a fork of the ODE ( Open Dynamics Engine) for detecting of collisions and simulating rigid body dynamics. The ODE library allows one to accurately simulate physical properties of objects such as velocity, inertia and friction. Webots includes a set of sensors and actuators frequently used in robotic experiments, e.g. lidars, radars, proximity sensors, light sensors, touch sensors, GPS,

accelerometer An accelerometer is a tool that measures proper acceleration. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) of a body in its own instantaneous rest frame; this is different from coordinate acceleration, which is acce ...

s, cameras, emitters and receivers, servo motors (rotational & linear), position and force sensor, LEDs, grippers, gyros, compass, IMU, etc. The robot controller programs can be written outside of Webots in C, C++, Python, ROS,

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

and

MATLAB MATLAB (an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementa ...

using a simple API. Webots offers the possibility to take screenshots and record simulations. Webots worlds are stored in cross-platform *.wbt files whose format is based on the VRML language. One can also import and export Webots worlds and objects in the VRML format. Users can interact with a running simulation by moving robots and other objects with the mouse. Webots can also stream a simulation on web browsers using WebGL. Robotisop3

Web interface

Since August 18, 2017, the robotbenchmark.net website has offered free access to a series of robotics benchmarks based on Webots simulations through the Webots web interface. Webots instances are running in the cloud and the 3D views are displayed in the user browser. From this web interface, users can program robots in Python and learn robot control in a step-by-step procedure.

Controller programming example

This is a simple example of C/C++ controller programming with Webots: a trivial collision avoidance behavior. Initially, the robot runs forwards, then when an obstacle is detected it rotates around itself for a while and then resumes the forward motion. #include #include #include #define TIME_STEP 64 int main()

Main fields of application

* Fast prototyping of wheeled and legged robots * Research on robot locomotion * Swarm intelligence (Multi-robot simulations) *

Artificial life Artificial life (often abbreviated ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemist ...

and evolutionary robotics * Simulation of adaptive behaviourLouis-Emmanuel Martinet, Denis Sheynikhovich, Karim Benchenane, and Angelo Arleo (2011) Spatial Learning and Action Planning in a Prefrontal Cortical Network Model, PLoS Comput Biol 7(5): e1002045. Mannella F., Mirolli M., Baldassarre G., A computational model of the amygdala nuclei's role in second order conditioning. In M. Asada et al. (eds.), From Animals to Animats 10: Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB2008), pp. 321-330. LNAI 5040 Berlin: Springer. *

Self-Reconfiguring Modular Robotics Modular self-reconfiguring robotic systems or self-reconfigurable modular robots are autonomous kinematic machines with variable morphology. Beyond conventional actuation, sensing and control typically found in fixed-morphology robots, self-recon ...

* Experimental environment for

computer vision Computer vision is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate t ...

* Teaching and robot programming contests

Included robot models

A complete and up-to-date list is provided in the Webots user guide. * AIBO ERS7 and ERS210,

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Corporation * BIOLOID (dog), Robotis

Bioloid The ROBOTIS BIOLOID is a hobbyist and educational robot kit produced by the Korean robot manufacturer ROBOTIS. The BIOLOID platform consists of components and small, modular servomechanisms called the AX-12A Dynamixels, which can be used in a da ...

* Boe-Bot * DARwIn-OP, Robotis *

E-puck The e-puck is a small (7 cm) differential wheeled mobile robot. It was originally designed for micro-engineering education by Michael Bonani and Francesco Mondada at the ASL laboratory of Prof. Roland Siegwart at EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerla ...

* Hemisson * HOAP-2,

Fujitsu is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the la ...

Limited *

iCub iCub is a 1 metre tall open source robotics humanoid robot testbed for research into human cognition and artificial intelligence. It was designed by the RobotCub Consortium of several European universities and built by Italian Institute o ...

RobotCub Consortium The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europea ...

iRobot Create iRobot Create is a hobbyist robot manufactured by iRobot that was introduced in 2007 and based on their Roomba vacuum cleaning platform. The iRobot Create is explicitly designed for robotics development and improves the experience beyond simply ...

, iRobot * Katana IPR, Neuronics AG * Khepera mobile robot I, II, III, K-Team Corporation * KHR-2HV, KHR-3HV, Kondo * Koala, K-Team Corporation *

Lego Mindstorms Lego Mindstorms is a hardware and software structure which develops programmable robots based on Lego building blocks. Each version includes computer Lego bricks, a set of modular sensors and motors, and Lego parts from the Technic line to ...

(RCX Rover model) * Magellan * Nao V2, V3, Aldebaran Robotics * MobileRobots Inc Pioneer 2, Pioneer 3-DX, Pioneer 3-AT * Puma 560, Unimate * Scout 2 * Shrimp III, BlueBotics SA * Surveyor SRV-1, Surveyor Corporation * youBot, KUKA

Cross compilation and remote control support

* DARwIn-OP and Robotis OP2 * NAO * Thymio II

References

External links

{{Commons category
Cyberbotics
Robotics simulation software 1996 software 1996 in robotics Driving simulators