Riley Konsella
ABSTRACT
Most modern applications of Evolutionary Robotics (ER) rely upon computer-based physics simulations in order to model the behavior of the systems in question. One of the greatest challenges in the field of ER, therefore, is the development of robust, high-precision and accurate physics simulators that can model all necessary and relevant real-world interactions in an computationally efficient manner. Up until now, most popular ER simulators are nonetheless deficient in one or many of these properties. Here we introduce a new competitive simulator, the Baseline-Realistic Objective Open-Ended Kinematics Simulator (BROOKS) that outperforms other off-the-shelf simulators in most criteria. Our simulator is free, open-sourced, and easy to modify. It can model a wide range of robotic platforms, substrates and environments. Moreover, we claim solutions produced within the BROOKS simulator perform almost identically in the real-world, thereby helping to address one of the most challenging aspects of simulation in Evolutionary Robotics: the Reality Gap. Ultimately, we believe that BROOKS will establish a new baseline against which all other simulators should be compared.
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