Morse : Generic simulator for robotics

This software was developed (or is under development) within the higher education and research community. Its stability can vary (see fields below) and its working state is not guaranteed.

Web site: http://morse.openrobots.org/
System: UNIX-like, Windows, MacOS X
Current version: 1.2 - january 2014
License(s): BSD
Status: stable release
Support: maintained, ongoing development
Designer(s): Main developers: Arnaud Degroote (LAAS-CNRS), Gilberto Echeverria (LAAS-CNRS), Michael Karg (TUM), Séverin Lemaignan (LAAS-CNRS). See the full list.
Contact designer(s): morse-dev AT laas DOT fr
Laboratory, service: LAAS, ONERA, Technische Universität München (TUM) full list

Higher Edu - Research dev card

Creation or important update: 18/07/12
Minor correction: 28/05/14
Index card author: Matthieu Herrb (LAAS)
Theme leader: Odile Bénassy (UFR Droit Université Paris Sud 11)

Keywords

Laboratories: LAAS, ONERA
Head institution: CNRS, ONERA, Univ Toulouse 3
System: UNIX-like, Windows, MacOS X
Profession-activity: developer, mechanics, other
IT sector: scientific computer, development
Use: personal
Main features: display, software environment
Various other keywords: 3D

General software features

MORSE is a generic simulator for academic robotics. It focuses on realistic simulation of small to large environments, indoor or outdoor, with one to over a dozen of autonomous robots. It provides a set of standard sensors (cameras, laser scanner, GPS, odometry,...), actuators (speed controllers, high-level waypoints controllers, generic joint controllers) and robotic bases (ATRV, generic 4 wheel vehicle, PR2,...) used in robotics research laboratories. New components can easily be added.

Morse can use and test software components interacting through several middlewares used in robotics, including: Fiche Plume pocolibs, yarp and ROS.

One of the main design choice for MORSE is the ability to control the degree of realism of the simulation, form photo-realistic rendering for image processing to semantic levels, avoiding heavy processing to extract information.

Morse is based on the Fiche Plume Blender modelling and real-time 3D rendering environment and on the Bullet physics simulator engine.

Context in which the software is used

Academic research in robotics, development and debugging of software components, teaching,...

Publications related to software

G. Echeverria and N. Lassabe and A. Degroote and S. Lemaignan, Modular OpenRobots Simulation Engine: MORSE,
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Shanghai, 2011.
Gilberto Echeverria, The MORSE Robotics simulation platform based on Blender, Blender Conference, Amsterdam, October 2010.
Gilberto Echeverria, MORSE, the essential ingredient to bring your robot to real life, EURON Robotics Week 2011.
S. Lemaignan, G. Echeverria, M. Karg, J. Mainprice, A. Kirsch and R. Alami, Human-Robot Interaction in the MORSE Simulator. Proceedings of the 2012 Human-Robot Interaction Conference.