REMOTE is a Java-based robot manipulator simulator, produced as my undergraduate thesis at Simon Fraser University under the direction of Dr. John Dill.  REMOTE is a simulation application, designed to give engineering students exposure to robot manipulators, and robot programming, while minimizing the cost in facilities and equipment to the university.

As the first step in the development of a virtual robotics laboratory, the REMOTE simulator, pictured right, allows students to input basic programs and view the simulated results.  The manipulator simulated by the first version of the REMOTE application is the Scorbot ER III; students program the simulation in the Scorbot's native language, Scorbase.

In order to maximize the effort invested in the development of the simulator, the application is easily configurable to simulate alternate manipulators.  Robot links are built out of 3D models developed in standard 3D editor software, and configured via a text file.  An inverse kinematics module must be developed for each robot manipulator with different topographies (i.e. 3-link with revolute joints is different from a 4-link with prismatic joints).  Different robot language parsers can be easily developed, and 'plugged in' to the simulator without requiring re-compilation of the entire application.

The second step in the REMOTE project, yet to be undertaken by the School of Engineering, will be to integrate the simulator with an actual manipulator.  By doing this, students will be able to remotely conduct robotics experiments, watching the results via streaming video over the Internet.  Another student at SFU has already succeeded in creating a simple server which accepts Scorbase commands from the user via an applet on a web page.  It should be a fairly straightforward process to incorporate the client-side applet code into REMOTE's simulation structure.

The current release of REMOTE is fully functional, providing a 3D model representation of the current state of the robot as the simulation is being run.  All of the usual amenities common to most of today's applications are present: graphical toolbar, tooltips, and online help are all present.

Some parts of REMOTE could be enhanced further still: The 3D model decoder used by the simulator is not capable of decoding material color or surface characteristics (reflectivity, absorption, diffuse reflectivity), rendering the model in a rather unrealistic shiny plastic grey.

Future versions of REMOTE should incorporate a more generalized simulation architecture, to allow for 'real world' simulation.  For example, if a manipulator is holding a ball and the manipulator releases the ball, the ball should fall under the force of gravity.  Of course, this assume that the environment is simulating Earth conditions; it should be possible to simulate other environments, such as underwater, zero-gravity, or viscous fluid environments.