Is there ROS support for PAL (Physics Abstraction Layer) or other physics engines (not only ODE or Bullet)?

asked 2012-02-08 13:34:46 -0600

sam
2570 ●233 ●269 ●290

updated 2016-01-25 07:47:25 -0600

lucasw

8729 ●137 ●239 ●256 https://github.com/lucasw

I found that PAL support many physical engines.

I specially interested in not only rigid models but also fluid or breakable models.

Here is the list of PAL features now:

     Physics Engines
         Box2D (experimental)
         Bullet
         Dynamechs(deprecated)
         Havok (experimental)
         IBDS (experimental)
         JigLib
         Meqon(deprecated)
         Newton
         ODE
         OpenTissue (experimental)
         PhysX (a.k.a Novodex, Ageia PhysX, nVidia PhysX)
         Simple Physics Engine (experimental)
         Tokamak
         TrueAxis 
     File Formats
         Collada
         Scythe
         PAL XML(deprecated) 
     Collision subsystem
     Solver subsystem (Multithreaded / Hardware acceleration)
     Bodies (Static and Dynamic)
         Box
         Capsule
         Compound Bodies
         Convex
         Sphere 
     Geometries
         Box
         Capsule
         Convex Mesh
         Concave Mesh (Terrain)
         Height field (Terrain)
         Plane (Terrain)
         Sphere 
     Links
         Spherical (Ball and Socket) Link
         Revolute (Hinge) Link
         Prismatic (Slider) Link
         Generic 6DOF Link 
     Sensors
         Contact
         Compass (Angular position)
         GPS (Global Positioning System - Position)
         Gyroscope (Angular velocity)
         Inclinometer (Angular position)
         PSD (Position Sensitive Device - Ray casting)
         Sonar (Ray casting)
         Velocimeter (Linear velocity)
         Transponder (Distance between two objects) 
     Actuators
         Force actuator (Generic)
         DC Motor
         Servo Motor
         Hydrofoil
         Propeller
         Spring 
     Fluids
         Particle Fluids (SPH)
         Grid-Based Fluids (Dampened Shallow Wave)
         Buoyancy Force
         Drag & Lift Forces 
     Vehicles

I also find three engines:

irrlicht engine also seems to be an excellent realtime 3D engine(pretty beautiful).
SOFA Framework (Deformable models,Rigid models,Fluid models,Collision models)

SICONOS(simulation of mechanical systems)

This has special functions I'm not really understand it is useful or not.

 Hybrid systems and switched systems
 Mechanical systems with contact, impact and friction
 Electrical circuits with ideal and piecewise linear components
 Differential inclusions and Complementarity systems
 Sliding mode control and Optimal Control with state constraints

 Linear Complementarity problems (LCP)
 Mixed Linear Complementarity problems (MLCP)
 Nonlinear Complementarity Problems (NCP)
 Friction-contact problems (2D or 3D)
 Primal or Dual Relay problems
 Quadratic Programming problems (QP)

image description

What ROS already support now?

What engines will be able to support in the future?

Thank you~

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Comments

What do you mean by ROS support for PAL?

tfoote ( 2012-02-08 13:48:50 -0600 )edit

You may get a better response if you explain how PAL relates to or would be useful for robotics.

ahendrix ( 2012-02-08 13:55:08 -0600 )edit

Let me use Gazebo to express my idea. I use Gazebo for simulated rigid body,but when I want to simulate fluid or some object breakable,I think it will be very hard to make it. I found one cognitive paper use rigid body to simulate breakable egg. Those encourage me to figure out more.

sam ( 2012-02-08 14:05:00 -0600 )edit

Another thing is,if ROS support more engine which can display pretty beautiful scenes,it will also attract more people's attention, and also can build many wonderful scenes for robotics developments. Testing robot algorithms on beautiful scenes will be more comfortable than simple one.

sam ( 2012-02-08 14:09:04 -0600 )edit

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answered 2012-02-09 04:29:40 -0600

DimitriProsser

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If you're concerned with how Gazebo looks, you can take a look at MORSE. MORSE uses the Blender engine for robot simulation. It is compatible with ROS. This might be along the lines of what you're looking for.

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Comments

Thank you~ Is it support for other model like soft,fluid model? I need those models so I choose to write this origin post.

sam ( 2012-02-09 09:49:24 -0600 )edit

By the way,does it support URDF? Thank you~

sam ( 2012-02-09 09:52:17 -0600 )edit

It does not support URDF as far as I'm aware (I could be wrong though). It's base don the Bullet physics library, which I've read can support fluid simulation and the like, so you should be ok there.