Communications of the ACM
Accelerating Robotic Innovation
Halmstad University professor Walid Taha is developing Acumen, a software that could enable researchers to more accurately predict the physical behavior of robots.
Credit: Halmstad University
A holistic system for modeling and simulating the behavior of robots is the focus of a collaboration involving researchers at Rice, Texas A&M, and Halmstad universities.
Robotics designers would be able to use the new approach from start to finish, and it would enable researchers to more accurately predict the physical behavior of robots. "One of our goals is to find a way to do virtual testing so that key flaws can be found on a computer before a prototype is ever built," says Halmstad professor Walid Taha.
The team will continue to develop a new programming language called Acumen, which will help ensure that different pieces of software used by designers at various points in the design and testing of a new robot remain compatible. The researchers say Acumen will be especially helpful to robotics designers when entire concepts are missing or treated wholly different. The idea is to use the software infrastructure to develop the next generation of walking robots and robotic assistive devices. "We should be able to input into the simulation environment any equation that the mechanical engineers give us," says Rice professor Corky Cartwright.
From Rice University
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