## page was renamed from simulator_gazebo/Overview
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== Gazebo Physics Engine Wrapper ==
Current PR2 simulation is implemented through [[http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/gazebo/gazebo.html|the Gazebo Project]]. Gazebo is a simulation interface wrapper around the physics engine (currently [[physics_ode/ODE|ODE]]) under the [[https://sourceforge.net/projects/playerstage/|Player Project]].

== Simulation World ==
 * Simulated world environments can be found in directory '''worlds''' under the ros package [[gazebo_worlds]].

== Simulating Robots ==
 * We use [[urdf|URDF]] (uniform robot description format) to define objects and robots in simulation.
   * [[pr2_description]] contains the [[xacro|xacro-lized]] (an XML macro language) [[urdf]] definitions for the PR2 robot.

== ROS Simulation Interface ==
{{attachment:simulator_gazebo/basic_loop.jpg}} <<BR>>
 * [[pr2_gazebo_plugins]] supports following functionalities on the PR2 robot:
   * [[prosilica_camera]] 
   * [[pr2_controller_manager]] 
     * Operating transparency between simulation and the actual hardware at actuators level.
     * Physics simulation of kinematics assumes:
       * exact torque production at actuated joints, i.e. torque constants are exact.
       * explicit joint damping applied, i.e. damping force = damping coefficient times joint velocity.
       * currently, joint friction, efficiency and motor inertias are not modeled.
     * [[robot_mechanism_controllers|Generic Robot Mechanism Controllers]]
     * [[pr2_mechanism_controllers|PR2 specific Mechanism Controllers]]
   * [[power_monitor]]
 * See [[gazebo_plugins|ROS-Gazebo plugins]] for more details on Gazebo's ROS interface, and on how to extend Gazebo's functionality