I've been looking through the URDF specifications of the Atlas robot from DRC Sim. I noticed that there are two mu values and that they are quite large for what I would expect for a coefficient of friction. I've done some Googling but haven't found a definitive answer on what exactly the coefficient's mean and why the coefficients are larger than 1 in the models.

I found on ODE's wiki some information about the friction coefficients. http:// ode-wiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Manual:_Concepts#Friction_Approximation However, it mentions that there are two approximation methods. So my first question is, which one does Gazebo use by default and which one does the DRC Sim use?

I found a few more references to the coefficients in the ODE manual here http:// ode-wiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Manual:_All&printable=yes#Contact

I think that this section in the manual explains the difference between mu1 and mu2 and what the fdir1 and fdir2 parameters in the URDF means, but if it doesn't please let me know.

However, what I'm still not understanding is why there are mu values in the URDF that are above 1. Especially because in the newer SDF format specification it explicitly says that mu should be a value between 0 and 1. http:// gazebosim.org/sdf/1.3.html#mu

So my second question is why are the mu values so high in the URDF specification of the Atlas robot?

Also I have posted this question on the gazebo answers site. I wasn't sure which site was more appropriate. Here is a link to that question http:// answers.gazebosim.org/question/1512/what-do-the-friction-coefficients-mean-and-why-are/

Also sorry about not making the links clickable. I don't have enough karma to publish links.

Answered on Gazebosim website

The question has been answered on the Gazebo Answers site linked above. I'm leaving it up so others can follow the link to the answered question.