Simulating a Starter Kit Robot (Robotics Module)

You can simulate a Robotics Starter Kit robot without depending on an actual robot.

Creating a Starter Kit Simulation Project

A simulation application for a Starter Kit robot is organized in a LabVIEW project with the same types of simulation-related files as other robotics simulation applications. Use the following methods to generate a LabVIEW project for simulating a Starter Kit robot:

• To simulate a robot running an application and deploy the application to a real robot, use the Robotics Project Wizard to create a new Robotics Starter Kit project. This wizard generates a project that contains both a simulator target and the Single-Board RIO target on the real robot. This wizard places the simulated robot in a predefined simulation scene, which you can modify later.
• To simulate a robot when you do not want to deploy the application to a real robot, use the Robotics Environment Simulator Wizard to create a new Robotics Environment Simulator project. This wizard allows you to design a simulation environment that includes the Starter Kit robot and any other components you want to simulate.

Both wizards save a manifest file, which defines the simulation scene and components in the scene, in the LabVIEW project under the simulator target (). After you create the LabVIEW project, you can launch the Robotics Environment Simulator Wizard to modify components in the simulation scene, such as the environment, and save the changes in the manifest file. The Robot Environment Simulator reads the manifest file to display the simulation scene.

Writing a Starter Kit Simulation Application

After you create a project with a simulator target, you can use the Starter Kit VIs to communicate with simulated versions of the Starter Kit robot similar to how you interface with a real robot. To begin the application, use the appropriate initialization VI for your simulation application—the Initialize Starter Kit 1.0 VI or the Initialize Starter Kit 2.0 VI—with the Start Simulator Service VI.

After you start the simulator, write a VI to control the simulation. With the exception of the initialization VI, you can use all other Starter Kit VIs in applications for real or simulated robots. The ability to reuse these VIs is useful because you can design and test a simulated Starter Kit application and then use the same LabVIEW project to deploy the same application to a real robot.

When you finish simulating the robot application, you can prepare the project and files to be deployed to a real robot.

Refer to the Starter Kit 1.0.lvproj in the labview\examples\robotics\Starter Kit 1.0 directory for an example of using the Starter Kit VIs to simulate the Starter Kit 1.0 robot.

Refer to the Starter Kit 2.0.lvproj in the labview\examples\robotics\Starter Kit 2.0 directory for an example of using the Starter Kit VIs to simulate the Starter Kit 2.0 robot.