Rapid development system for humanoid vision-based behaviors with real-virtual common interface

This paper describes a rapid development system for humanoid vision-based behavior consisting of both real and virtual robots in a simulation environment. Previous robotics simulators were limited to verify dynamic motions such as walking, or to plan or learn in a simple environment. However, our system is able to simulate vision based behavior, i.e. motion and perception behavior, of a robot as a whole, since it can simulate both dynamics and collisions in the environment. We regard the real-time aspect of the simulation as important so that so that users can develop vision based behavior rapidly and efficiently. We employ a Common Interface API to share behavior software between real and virtual robots. Moreover, visual processing functions such as color extraction and depth map generation are available. As a result, vision based behavior consisting of local map generation, planning and navigation of the humanoid in simulation is presented. We also show that software developed in the simulation environment is applicable to real robots.