*********************************************************************** 
 ****                                                               **** 
 **** SimRobot                                                      **** 
 **** Copyright (c) 1994 Center for Cognitive Sciences,             ****
 ****                    Fachbereich 3 - Computer Science           **** 
 ****                    University of Bremen, Germany              ****
 ****                                                               **** 
 ***********************************************************************/ 


This is to announce the availability of a Robot Simulator Software Package
in the public domain:

                                   SimRobot
                                   ========

Version 1.0 (9/94)

Main author: Uwe Siems
Center for Cognitive Sciences
FB3 Computer Science
University of Bremen, 
28334 Bremen, Germany
simrobot@informatik.uni-bremen.de


Description
------------

SimRobot is a program for simulation of sensor based robots in a
3D environment. It is written in C++, runs under UNIX and X11 and
needs the graphics toolkit XView.

Features:
---------

  -  Simulation of robot kinematics
  -  Hierarchically built scene definition via a simple definition
     language
  -  Various sensors built in: camera, facette eye, distance measurement,
     light sensor, etc.
  -  Objects defined as polyeders
  -  Emitter abstractly defined; can be interpreted e.g. as light or sound
  -  Camera images computed according to the raytracing or Z-buffer algorithms
     known from computer graphics
  -  Specific sensor/motor software interface for communicating with the
     simulation
  -  Texture mapping onto the object surfaces: bitmaps in various formats
  -  Comprehensive visualization of the scene: wire frame w/o hidden lines,
     sensor and actor values
  -  Interactive as well as batch driven control of the agents and operation
     in the environment
  -  Collision detection
  -  Extendability with user defined object types
  -  Possible socket communication to e.g. the Khoros image processing
     software


Compatibility
--------------

SimRobot has been tested on SUN Workstations:

  - Name: Sparc ELC 
  - Operating System: SunOS 4.1.2
  - Compiler: Gnu-C++ 2.5.6
  - Toolkit: XView 3.1

  - Name: Sparc classic 
  - Operating System: SunOS 5.3 (Solaris)
  - Compiler: Gnu-C++ 2.5.6
  - Toolkit: XView 3.2

  - Name: Sparc 10 
  - Operating System: SunOS 4.1.3
  - Compiler: Gnu-C++ 2.5.6
  - Toolkit: XView 3.1

  - Name: Sparc 10
  - Operating System: SunOS 5.3 (Solaris)
  - Compiler: Gnu-C++ 2.5.6
  - Toolkit: XView 3.1

  - Name: Sparc 5
  - Operating System: SunOS 5.3 (Solaris)
  - Compiler: Gnu-C++ 2.6.0
  - Toolkit: XView 3.1

  - Name: IBM PC Compatible
  - Operating System: Linux 1.0
  - Compiler: Gnu-C++ 2.6.0 (2.5.8 does not work!)
  - Toolkit: XView 3.1

Necessary Files
---------------

  SimRobX.tar.Z        (main program and data files)
  xli_1.15.tar.Z       (for texture conversion)


These files can be obtained by anonymous ftp:

	unix> ftp ftp.uni-bremen.de (or 134.102.228.9) 
	ftp> cd ZKW/INFORM/simrobot
        ftp> binary
	ftp> get SimRobX.tar.Z
	ftp> get xli_1.15.tar.Z
	
Installation
------------

Since the documentation is written in german, we will give the 
installation instruction right here:

Setting environment variables:

In order to work with SimRobot you need to set two environment variables.
SIMROBOTHOME should be set to the root directory of SimRobot and PATH
should be extended to contain an entry of $SIMROBOTHOME/bin.
Both are best placed in the '.login' file. Example:

  setenv SIMROBOTHOME ~/SimRobot
  setenv PATH         .:${SIMROBOTHOME}/bin:${PATH}

Uncompressing and preparing to compile:

  uncompress SimRobX.tar.Z
  tar -xvf SimRobX.tar
  install_xli

Setting a symbolic link to the includes of C++. Example:

  ln -s /usr/g++-include ${SIMROBOTHOME}/c++include
        ----------------
          replace this

Compilation of the programs:

  mmakeall clean  (if an old version of SimRobot is still installed here)
  mmakeall

The first call will send an automatic mail to the SimRobot project group 
at Bremen University. Its use for us is to estimate the number of users.
Now the compilation commences. In some cases, when the system configuration
differs from the above mentioned ones, you may need to adjust the
Makefile in the subdirectory MAIN.

Immediate test:

  cd SimRobot/EXAMPLES
  RobotArm

or, e.g.:

  RobotArm RobotArm2.scn
  SimRobot RobotArm.scn
  SimRobot RobotArm2.scn
  SimRobot BeeWorld.scn
  SimRobot Lab.scn

The files '*.scn' include sample scene definitions. 
The program 'RobotArm' for example uses 'RobotArm.scn'.


Feedback
--------

For ideas, bug reports and questions you are welcome to contact the
SimRobot Project Group at:
simrobot@informatik.uni-bremen.de


Have fun!