Comparative Study of Physics Engines for Robot Simulation with Mechanical Interaction

Simulation with a reasonable physical model is important to develop control algorithms for robots quickly, accurately, and safely without damaging the associated physical systems in various environments. However, it is difficult to choose the suitable tool for simulating a specific project. To help users in selecting the best tool when simulating a given project, we compare the performance of the four widely used physics engines, namely, ODE, Bullet, Vortex, and MoJoco, for various simple and complex industrial scenarios. We first summarize the technical algorithms implemented in each physics engine. We also designed four simulation scenarios ranging from simple scenarios for which analytic solution exists to complex industrial scenarios to compare the performance of each physics engine. We then present the simulation results in the default settings of all the physics engines, and analyze the behavior and contact force of the simulated objects.