ROS-PyBullet Interface: A Framework for Reliable Contact Simulation and Human-Robot Interaction

Christopher Mower, Theodoros Stouraitis, João Moura, Christian Rauch, Lei Yan, Nazanin Zamani Behabadi, Michael Gienger, Tom Vercauteren, Christos Bergeles, Sethu Vijayakumar

Keywords: Contact-rich Simulation, Manipulation, Teleoperation, Human-Robot Interaction

TL;DR: The ROS-PyBullet Interface is a framework between the reliable contact simulator PyBullet and the Robot Operating System (ROS) with additional utilities for Human-Robot Interaction in the simulated environment - we also present several use-cases.

Abstract: Reliable contact simulation plays a key role in the development of (semi-)autonomous robots, especially when dealing with contact-rich manipulation scenarios, an active robotics research topic. Besides simulation, components such as sensing, perception, data collection, robot hardware control, human interfaces, etc. are all key enablers towards applying machine learning algorithms or model-based approaches in real world systems. However, there is a lack of software connecting reliable contact simulation with the larger robotics ecosystem (i.e. ROS, Orocos), for a more seamless application of novel approaches, found in the literature, to existing robotic hardware. In this paper, we present the ROS-PyBullet Interface, a framework that provides a bridge between the reliable contact/impact simulator PyBullet and the Robot Operating System (ROS). Furthermore, we provide additional utilities for facilitating Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) in the simulated environment. We also present several use-cases that highlight the capabilities and usefulness of our framework. Our code base is open source and can be found at https://github.com/ros-pybullet/ros_pybullet_interface.

Student First Author: no

Website: https://ros-pybullet.github.io/ros_pybullet_interface/

Code: https://github.com/ros-pybullet/ros_pybullet_interface

Community Implementations: [ 2 code implementations](https://www.catalyzex.com/paper/arxiv:2210.06887/code)