ODE Tutorial 1: An Overview of Open Dynamics Engine

This page is mainly translated from http://demura.net/archives/9ode by http://translation.infoseek.co.jp.

A Humanoid Robot Simulator based on Open Dynamics Engine

A characteristic of Open Dynamics Engine (ODE) is  an open source physics (rigid body dynamics) engine  and it is easy to use. I introduce it as follows.

* License：ODE is free software and can be redistributed underGnu Lesser General Public License (LGPL)orBSD-style license.  You can use it on business with no money.

*  It is easy to use it：Because three-dimensional computer graphics library (OpenGL) and collision detection mechanism are incorporated, I can use it immediately. A manual keeps strong, and sample programs are sufficient, too. Furthermore, ODE’s community is activre, too and can read a past mailing list in a website.

*  High speed：Because it is used for commercial game engines, speed is high-speed. I am suitable for studies such as hereditary algorithm, reinforcement learning. Many researchers used it for simulation in a robot society of this year. But precision is not suitable for a demanded use because calculation precision is not high.

*  Multi-platform：It can be used on Windows, Linux and Mac. Software working only in Linux is diffcult to use in a class.

*  C/C++ language：A programming language is OK in both C and C++.

Let’s install ODE and the development environment in the next tutorial!