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I'm now considering to choose Gazebo or SimMechanics for simulating my quadruped robot.

I set some standards for the simulation:

  1. Support Real-time application with ROS
  2. Simulate contact impact well(with ground) (deformable if possible)
  3. Good rendering Quality.

I have learned Gazebo for months, and see it has some limits to meet my requirements, especially the contact and friction problems.

I didn't use SimMechanics, but when i'm very impressed on it when i see this video.

Anyone who has experiences on Quadruped Simulation can share me some advice?

Thank you so much.

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  • $\begingroup$ I haven't used Gazebo, but I have used SimMechanics. SimMechanics is pretty straightforward to use if you're familiar with kinematic trees and such. The only thing I would warn you about with SimMechanics is that it is not cheap. In order to have SimMechanics you have to have SimScape. In order to have SimScape you have to have Simulink, and in order to have Simulink you have to have Matlab. There are other "Sim____" packages that you may find useful as well, but again, they're all sold separately. You're in for 5k in software easy. $\endgroup$
    – Chuck ♦
    Jan 6, 2016 at 13:42
  • $\begingroup$ @Chuck, true enough. OP may be able to use an academic license if you are still in school. That would reduce the cost dramatically. For what it's worth, we use in-house software, to the best of my knowledge, so it may not be something you'll find a great solution for in industry. $\endgroup$
    – Josh Vander Hook
    Jan 6, 2016 at 21:08
  • $\begingroup$ Gazebo is not a simulator so you should not call it one in a context as specific as this. All of the simulators available for use with the gazebo generic simulation interface have more capability than gazebo allows access to. Which ones did you try? I know that at least one of the top quadruped research groups uses SL. $\endgroup$
    – hauptmech
    Jan 6, 2016 at 21:18
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    $\begingroup$ BTW good simulation quality and good rendering quality don't usually happen in the same software. $\endgroup$
    – hauptmech
    Jan 6, 2016 at 21:19
  • $\begingroup$ @Chuck: You have used SimMechanics with Simulink blocks. So have you seen the limit of building blocks to control a complex systems? Quadruped robot is not a simple system so its controller will be complex. I'm afaid of that blocks are not enough flexible and functional to control such a complex systems. I'm willing to prefer to use code for controlling it. $\endgroup$
    – Phan
    Jan 7, 2016 at 6:56

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