Webots User Guide release 6.4.0 Copyright c 2011 Cyberbotics Ltd. All Rights Reserved www.cyberbotics.com May 18, 2011 2 Permission to use, copy and distribute this documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted in perpetuity, provided that no modifications are performed on this documenta- tion. The copyright holder makes no warranty or condition, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, regarding this manual and the associated software. This manual is provided on an as-is basis. Neither the copyright holder nor any applicable licensor will be liable for any incidental or con- sequential damages. The Webots software was initially developed at the Laboratoire de Micro-Informatique (LAMI) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland (EPFL). The EPFL makes no warranties of any kind on this software. In no event shall the EPFL be liable for incidental or consequential damages of any kind in connection with the use and exploitation of this software. Trademark information AiboTMis a registered trademark of SONY Corp. RadeonTMis a registered trademark of ATI Technologies Inc. GeForceTMis a registered trademark of nVidia, Corp. JavaTMis a registered trademark of Sun MicroSystems, Inc. KheperaTMand KoalaTMare registered trademarks of K-Team S.A. LinuxTMis a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Mac OS XTMis a registered trademark of Apple Inc. MindstormsTMand LEGOTMare registered trademarks of the LEGO group. IPRTMis a registered trademark of Neuronics AG. UbuntuTMis a registered trademark of Canonical Ltd. Visual C++TM, WindowsTM, Windows 98TM, Windows METM, Windows NTTM, Windows 2000TM, Windows XPTMand Windows VistaTMWindows 7TMare registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. UNIXTMis a registered trademark licensed exclusively by X/Open Company, Ltd. Foreword Webots is a three-dimensional mobile robot simulator. It was originally developed as a research tool for investigating various control algorithms in mobile robotics. This user guide will get you started using Webots. However, the reader is expected to have a minimal knowledge in mobile robotics, in C, C++, Java, Python or MATLAB programming, and in VRML97 (Virtual Reality Modeling Language). Webots 6 features a new layout of the user interface with many facilities integrated, such as a source code editor, motion editor, etc. We hope that you will enjoy working with Webots 6. 3 4 Thanks Cyberbotics is grateful to all the people who contributed to the development of Webots, Webots sample applications, the Webots User Guide, the Webots Reference Manual, and the Webots web site, including Yvan Bourquin, Fabien Rohrer, Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin, Jordi Porta, Emanuele Ornella, Yuri Lopez de Meneses, Sebastien´ Hugues, Auke-Jan Ispeert, Jonas Buchli, Alessandro Crespi, Ludovic Righetti, Julien Gagnet, Lukas Hohl, Pascal Cominoli, Stephane´ Mojon, Jer´ omeˆ Braure, Sergei Poskriakov, Anthony Truchet, Alcherio Martinoli, Chris Cianci, Nikolaus Correll, Jim Pugh, Yizhen Zhang, Anne-Elisabeth Tran Qui, Gregory´ Mermoud, Lu- cien Epinet, Jean-Christophe Zufferey, Laurent Lessieux, Aude Billiard, Ricardo Tellez, Gerald Foliot, Allen Johnson, Michael Kertesz, Simon Garnieri, Simon Blanchoud, Manuel Joao˜ Fer- reira, Rui Picas, Jose´ Afonso Pires, Cristina Santos, Michal Pytasz and many others. Moreover, many thanks are due to Cyberbotics’s Mentors: Prof. Jean-Daniel Nicoud (LAMI- EPFL), Dr. Francesco Mondada (EPFL), Dr. Takashi Gomi (Applied AI, Inc.). Finally, thanks to Skye Legon and Nathan Yawn, who proofread this guide. 5 6 Contents 1 Installing Webots 17 1.1 System requirements................................ 17 1.2 Installation procedure................................ 18 1.2.1 Linux.................................... 18 1.2.2 Windows 7, Vista, XP........................... 20 1.2.3 Mac OS X................................. 20 1.3 Webots license system............................... 21 1.3.1 Dongle license............................... 21 1.3.2 Floating license............................... 22 1.4 Verifying your graphics driver installation..................... 22 1.4.1 Supported graphics cards.......................... 22 1.4.2 Unsupported graphics cards........................ 23 1.4.3 Upgrading your graphics driver...................... 23 1.4.4 Hardware acceleration tips......................... 24 1.5 Translating Webots to your own language..................... 25 2 Getting Started with Webots 27 2.1 Introduction to Webots............................... 27 2.1.1 What is Webots ?.............................. 27 2.1.2 What can I do with Webots ?........................ 27 2.1.3 What do I need to know to use Webots ?.................. 28 2.1.4 Webots simulation............................. 28 2.1.5 What is a world ?.............................. 29 7 8 CONTENTS 2.1.6 What is a controller ?............................ 29 2.1.7 What is a Supervisor ?........................... 29 2.2 Starting Webots................................... 30 2.2.1 Linux.................................... 30 2.2.2 Mac OS X................................. 30 2.2.3 Windows.................................. 30 2.2.4 Command Line Arguments......................... 30 2.2.5 Environment Variables used by Webots.................. 31 2.3 The User Interface................................. 31 2.3.1 File Menu.................................. 31 2.3.2 Edit Menu................................. 33 2.3.3 View Menu................................. 34 2.3.4 Simulation Menu.............................. 35 2.3.5 Build Menu................................. 36 2.3.6 Robot Menu................................ 36 2.3.7 Tools Menu................................. 36 2.3.8 Wizard Menu................................ 37 2.3.9 Help menu................................. 37 2.3.10 Speedometer and Virtual Time....................... 38 2.4 The 3D Window................................... 38 2.4.1 Selecting an object............................. 38 2.4.2 Navigation in the scene........................... 39 2.4.3 Moving a solid object............................ 39 2.5 The Scene Tree................................... 39 2.5.1 Buttons of the Scene Tree Window..................... 40 2.6 Citing Webots.................................... 41 2.6.1 Citing Cyberbotics’ web site........................ 42 2.6.2 Citing a reference journal paper about Webots............... 42 CONTENTS 9 3 Sample Webots Applications 43 3.1 Samples....................................... 43 3.1.1 blimp lis.wbt................................ 44 3.1.2 gantry.wbt.................................. 45 3.1.3 hexapod.wbt................................ 46 3.1.4 humanoid.wbt............................... 47 3.1.5 moon.wbt.................................. 48 3.1.6 ghostdog.wbt................................ 49 3.1.7 salamander.wbt............................... 50 3.1.8 soccer.wbt.................................. 51 3.1.9 sojourner.wbt................................ 52 3.1.10 yamor.wbt................................. 53 3.1.11 stewart platform.wbt............................ 54 3.2 Webots Devices................................... 55 3.2.1 battery.wbt................................. 55 3.2.2 bumper.wbt................................. 56 3.2.3 camera.wbt................................. 57 3.2.4 connector.wbt................................ 58 3.2.5 distance sensor.wbt............................. 59 3.2.6 emitter receiver.wbt............................ 60 3.2.7 encoders.wbt................................ 61 3.2.8 force sensor.wbt.............................. 62 3.2.9 gps.wbt................................... 63 3.2.10 led.wbt................................... 64 3.2.11 light sensor.wbt............................... 65 3.2.12 pen.wbt................................... 66 3.2.13 range finder.wbt.............................. 67 3.3 How To....................................... 68 3.3.1 binocular.wbt................................ 68 3.3.2 biped.wbt.................................. 69 3.3.3 force control.wbt.............................. 70 10 CONTENTS 3.3.4 inverted pendulum.wbt........................... 71 3.3.5 physics.wbt................................. 72 3.3.6 supervisor.wbt............................... 73 3.3.7 texture change.wbt............................. 74 3.3.8 town.wbt.................................. 75 3.4 Geometries..................................... 76 3.5 Real Robots..................................... 77 3.5.1 aibo ers210 rough.wbt........................... 77 3.5.2 aibo ers7.wbt................................ 78 3.5.3 aibo models.wbt.............................. 79 3.5.4 alice.wbt.................................. 80 3.5.5 boebot.wbt................................. 81 3.5.6 botstudio line.wbt............................. 82 3.5.7 botstudio maze.wbt............................. 83 3.5.8 botstudio obstacle.wbt........................... 84 3.5.9 botstudio pen.wbt............................. 85 3.5.10 e-puck.wbt................................. 86 3.5.11 e-puck line.wbt............................... 87 3.5.12 e-puck line demo.wbt........................... 88 3.5.13 hemisson cross compilation.wbt...................... 89 3.5.14 hoap2 sumo.wbt.............................. 90 3.5.15 hoap2 walk.wbt............................... 91 3.5.16 ipr collaboration.wbt............................ 92 3.5.17 ipr cube.wbt................................ 93 3.5.18 ipr factory.wbt..............................