A Flexible MATLAB/Simulink Simulator for Robotic Floating-base Systems in Contact with the Ground: Theoretical background and Implementation Details

TL;DR

This paper introduces an open-source MATLAB/Simulink simulator for floating-base robotic systems that is highly flexible, easily configurable, and supports complex kinematics and actuator dynamics, facilitating research and development.

Contribution

It presents a novel, modular MATLAB/Simulink-based physics simulator that allows easy customization of physics, kinematics, and dynamics for floating-base robots with ground contact.

Findings

Supports open-chain and closed-chain kinematics

Integrates second-order actuator dynamics

Features simple one-line installation

Abstract

This paper presents an open-source MATLAB/Simulink physics simulator for rigid-body articulated systems, including manipulators and floating-base robots. Thanks to MATLAB/Simulink features like MATLAB system classes and Simulink function blocks, the presented simulator combines a programmatic and block-based approach, resulting in a flexible design in the sense that different parts, including its physics engine, robot-ground interaction model, and state evolution algorithm are simply accessible and editable. Moreover, through the use of Simulink dynamic mask blocks, the proposed simulator supports robot models integrating open-chain and closed-chain kinematics with any desired number of links interacting with the ground. This simulator can also integrate second-order actuator dynamics. Furthermore, the simulator benefits from a one-line installation and an easy-to-use Simulink interface.