Overview

This Simplus is dedicated to the new Rescue simulation environment for Robocupers from Juniors to Majors and is aimed to be a bridge from Robocup Junior Rescue to Robocup Major Rescue competitions, so that a kid could start with it (e.g. by using Scratch to move a simulated robot) and gradually be introduced with more complex problems and languages (e.g. implementing object detection and SLAM by ROS).

 The proposed platform structure is consists of 3 main parts; CoppeliaSim + models + worlds, Gama Manager + Robot Monitor, & Robot Controlling code.

CoppeliaSim+ models + worlds

V-REP released the latest version of V-REP 4.0.0 and named it CoppelliaSim just two weeks ago. We have tested our developments also with V-REP 4.0.0 (CoppelliaSim) it works perfectly and even faster. It was a good sign here that V-REP at its’ biggest update is compatible with our developments. We have prepared bunch of sample models and a sample world.

Game Manager + Robot Monitor

we have considered two senarios; a server/client senario and a combined version, both senarios include the Game Manager, Robot Monitor, and the Robot Controlling code. The point is that in a server/client based approach the robot controling code (which the teams are soppused to develope) could be separated and run by an different computers which makes it a better solution for compettitions.

Game Manager

We have developed a Game Manager that is fed by the rules (whatever it is, finding victim, moving victim or obstacles, moving to a particular position, avoiding traps, to make the list short: robots can even play football:) and we did not limit the rules just to the rescue)

The Game Manager has been developed to

• Control the game state such as Start, Pause, & Stop,
• Calculate the scores based on the fexible rules defined by TC/OCs, (One of the most difficult parts of the TC/OC jobs in Virtual Rescue is fairly calculating the score as it is a simulated environment, so it is necessary to have the automated scoring system)
• Show scoreboard.

Robot Monitor

The Robot Monitor shows the robot’s sensors status, camera, orientation, & positions along providing a simple robot control panel, and possibility to connect with a real robot which might be intresting for kids.

Robot Controlling

The Robot Controlling code developed by the teams will be placed here. Simplus CoppeliaSim supports lots of programming languages (e.g. Scratch, Python, C, C++, GO, Obejctive C, JAVA, Node.js, … etc) which makes it available for any age, & any paroblem!

The developing team have prepared 2 sample codes moving one for Scratch, and an other for Python (more samples will be provided if needed).

Demo

In order to have a better understanding of how the installation and running is performed, we have provided a demo. Please have a look at the following video: https://youtu.be/zule-A18Qzo

It shows the installation process, and runs a sample of robot controlling code in order to show the robot interaction with the environment.

System Requirements

SimPlus will likely run on a modern dual core PC with a decent graphics card. Typical configuration is:

• Dual Core CPU (2.0 Ghz+)
• 2GB of RAM
• 256MB nVidia or ATI graphics card

Note that it may run on lower end equipment, though good performance is not guaranteed.

Simplus Server environment

Scratch Simplus Extention environment