Choreonoid: Extensible virtual robot environment built on an integrated GUI framework

TLDR

Virtual robot models are widely used for developing, testing, and operating robot systems, yet existing GUI tools lack many necessary functions, making the creation of new tools from scratch laborious. This paper presents Choreonoid, a framework that enables efficient implementation and integration of GUI tools for virtual robot handling. Choreonoid provides a modular architecture that lets users build and combine GUI components to control virtual robots. Example tools built on Choreonoid demonstrate the validity of its design and implementation.

Abstract

Virtual robot models are often used for developing, testing, and using robot systems. Such activities can be efficiently conducted by using software tools for visualizing and operating virtual robots with a graphical user interface (GUI). However, existing GUI tools such as robot simulators do not provide all the functions necessary for handling a target robot system, and the development of new GUI tools from the ground up to actuate functions requires considerable effort. To solve this problem, we have developed a software framework called Choreonoid, which allows users to efficiently implement and integrate various GUI tools for handling virtual robots. In this paper, we present the framework design. The validity of our design and implementation is shown by example tools implemented on the Choreonoid framework.