Virtual Robotic Testbeds: A Foundation for e-Robotics in Space, in Industry - And in the Woods

In recent years, virtual reality has emerged as a key technology for improving and streamlining design, programming, manufacturing and training processes. Based on experiences in the fields of space robotics, industrial manufacturing, multi-physics and virtual prototyping, "virtual testbeds" are currently being designed and implemented. Experience now shows that virtual testbeds also have a high potential to serve as the foundation for e-Robotics as robotics developed to become a computationally intensive science that is best carried out in a collaborative environment and preferably in a highly distributed network environment. So far, the robotics community does not appear to already appreciate the advantages of principles of e-Science being applied to robotics, probably because most robotics applications so far are being built bottom up and are still mostly dedicated to specific problems, e.g. in the domain of controller development. But when it comes to building larger applications like e.g. a space robot mission, planetary exploration rovers, au-tonomous working machines, advanced vehicle assistant systems etc., the demand for highly realistic and collaborative simulation environment increases. The developments of "virtual testbeds" to be presented in this paper describe the symbiotic integration of advanced simulation techniques with distributed computing ca-pabilities and advanced man-machine interaction metaphors to pave the way for e-Robotics with applications not only in space but also in factories, on construction sites - and in the woods.