Open Robotics Automation Virtual Environment (OpenRAVE) provides an environment for testing, developing, and deploying motion planning

Motion planning

Motion planning is a term used in robotics for the process of detailing a task into discrete motions....

 algorithms in real-world robotics

Robotics

Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...

 applications. The main focus is on simulation and analysis of kinematic and geometric information related to motion planning. OpenRAVE’s stand-alone nature allows it to be easily integrated into existing robotics systems. It provides many command-line tools to work with robot

Robot

A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

s and planners, and the run-time core is small enough to be used inside controllers and bigger frameworks.

IKFast

Possibly the most influential technology OpenRAVE provides is a tool called IKFast, the Robot Kinematics Compiler. Unlike most inverse kinematics solvers, IKFast can analytically solve the kinematics equations of any complex kinematics chain, and generate language-specific files (like C++

C++

C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...

) for later use. The end result is extremely stable solutions that can run as fast as 5 microsecond

Microsecond

A microsecond is an SI unit of time equal to one millionth of a second. Its symbol is µs.A microsecond is equal to 1000 nanoseconds or 1/1000 millisecond...

s on recent processors.

COLLADA

OpenRAVE supports the COLLADA

COLLADA

COLLADA is a COLLAborative Design Activity for establishing an interchange file format for interactive 3D applications. COLLADA is managed by the nonprofit technology consortium, the Khronos Group....

 1.5 file format for specifying robots and adds its own set of robot-specific extensions. The robot extensions include:

• manipulator
  Manipulator
  In robotics a manipulator is a device used to manipulate materials without direct contact. The applications were originally for dealing with radioactive or biohazardous materials, using robotic arms, or they were used in inaccessible places. In more recent developments they have been used in...
  
  s
• sensor
  Sensor
  A sensor is a device that measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument. For example, a mercury-in-glass thermometer converts the measured temperature into expansion and contraction of a liquid which can be read on a calibrated...
  
  s
• planning-specific parameters

Motion Planning

The core of OpenRAVE design focuses on offering interfaces and implementations of motion planning algorithms. Most of the planning algorithm implementations are for robot arms and use sampling to explore the task configuration spaces.

Applications

An important target application is industrial robotics automation. OpenRAVE's main focus is to increase the reliability of motion planning systems to make integration easy.

History

OpenRAVE was founded by Rosen Diankov at the Quality of Life Technology Center in the Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....

 Robotics Institute

Robotics Institute

The Robotics Institute is a division of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is considered to be one of the leading centers of robotics research in the world....

. It was inspired from the RAVE simulator James Kuffner had started developing in 1995 and used for a lot of his experiments. The OpenRAVE project was started in 2006 and started out as a complete rewrite of RAVE to support plugins. It quickly diverged into its own architecture concept and started being supported by many robotics researchers throughout the world. After earning his PhD from the Robotics Institute

Robotics Institute

The Robotics Institute is a division of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is considered to be one of the leading centers of robotics research in the world....

 in August 2010, Rosen Diankov became a postdoc at the JSK Robotics Lab at University of Tokyo

University of Tokyo

, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...

where OpenRAVE is currently being maintained.

Rosen Diankov is still the active maintainer of OpenRAVE.

External links

• Quality of Life Technology Center
• JSK Robotics Lab