Comparative Analysis Between Gazebo and V-REP Robotic Simulators

Robotic simulators are normally used in the design and testing of control algorithms for different platforms. But they can also be seen in a more broad context of Artificial Creatures. This a natural development of the cognitive paradigm proposed by Brooks. Related to this, in recent years the Robot Operating System (ROS) has emerged as a de facto standard for robot software architecture. I selected two of the best-known simulators and performed a comparison between them, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses for each one, and how well to these simulators interact with ROS, based on an experiment with a Pioneer 2DX robot. Keywords—robotic simulators, ROS, Gazebo, V-REP, cognitive science