Webots: Symbiosis Between Virtual and Real Mobile Robots

This paper presents Webots: a realistic mobile robot simulator allowing a straightforward transfer to real robots. The simulator currently support the Khepera mobile robot and a number of extension turrets. Both real and simulated robots can be programmed in C language using the same Khepera API, making the source code of a robot controller compatible between the simulator and the real robot. Sensor modelling for 1D and 2D cameras as well as visualisation and environment modelling are based upon the OpenGL 3D rendering library. A file format based on an extension of VRML97, used to model the environments and the robots, allows virtual robots to move autonomously on the Internet and enter the real world. Current applications include robot vision, artificial life games, robot learning, etc.