IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2013 - 15

robots that are easier to operate. The
value of a cloud-based simulator is that
it gives talent from any location a common space to train, design, test, and
collaborate on ideas without the need
for expensive hardware and prototyping. That opens the door to innovation"
[3]. In Groovy, Gazebo remains tightly
integrated with ROS.
PR2 robots at Willow Garage are
now running Groovy on Precise. It is
our primary development platform for

both robots and development computers. The point of ROS is to make it easier for the robotics community to share
code. We encourage everyone to use
and contribute to this latest stable
release and to report any problems you
have (http://www.ros.org/wiki/support).
References

[2] S. Chitta, I. Sucan, and S. Cousins, "MoveIt!," IEEE
Robot. Autom. Mag., vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 1-2, 2012.
[3] E. Ackerman. (2012, Oct. 24). Meet the amazing
robots that will compete in the DARPA robotics challenge. IEEE Spectr. Blog. [Online]. Available: http://
spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/
meet-the-amazing-robots-that-will-compete-in-thedarpa-robotics-challenge

[1] T. Straszheim, B. Gerkey, and S. Cousins, "The
ROS build system," IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag., vol. 18,
no. 2, pp. 18-122, 2011.

Vehicle Motion Science Is Born!
No one was ever taught to drive a car using mathematical equations. MotionLab LLC has succeeded in
mechanizing the motion‐control part of human drivers' skills using the firm theory of Symmetric Geometry.
Please visit www.vehiclemotion.net to experience Vehicle Motion Science. There, you can download a PDF
document, the Vehicle Motion Bible, for free, and you can purchase a Java® standalone application program,
the Vehicle Motion Platform, for a limited-time introductory price of $199 (the regular price is $399).
The Platform introduces you to a significant number of abstract vehicle motions; the Bible explains their
theoretical foundation. An abstract vehicle motion is hardware independent; thus, it can be easily employed on
a hardware vehicle such as an automobile or a wheelchair, with any dimensions, weight, and wheel
architecture.
An abstract vehicle
motion is a vehicle
motion that is described
by two mathematically
defined control
variables.

Abstract Vehicle Motions
(run on the Vehicle Motion Platform)
Employment
Robot
"Swan"

...

Automobile
"Abc"

Wheelchair
"Wxy"

The Vehicle Motion Platform, along with the Bible, will enhance your research and development activities,
whether you are a researcher, engineer, professor, manager, or Ph.D. student, and whether you work in the
field of robotics, mechanical/control engineering, computer science and AI, automotive engineering, applied
mathematics, or other fields.
www.vehiclemotion.net http://www.youtube.com/user/motionlabLLC www.motionlab.com
MotionLab LLC; California, U.S.A.

March 2013

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

http://http:// http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/ http://www.ros.org/wiki/support http://www.vehiclemotion.net http://www.vehiclemotion.net http://www.youtube.com/user/motionlabLLC http://www.motionlab.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2013