To make the development and operation of robots safe and efficient, it is necessary to simulate motions of the robots using a computer before the robots are operated in the real world. To this end, we have developed an integrated robot simulation system called "OpenHRP3 (Open-architecture Human-centered Robotics Platform 3)". OpenHRP3 can simulate physical motions of various types of robots including arm robots, mobile robots with wheels and humanoid robots. OpenHRP3 can also simulate the view images obtained from cameras or range sensors. We are distributing OpenHRP3 under an open-source license.

We have developed efficient, accurate algorithms for computing the forward dynamics of rigid bodies. The forward dynamics engines based on the algorithms allow practical simulations even for complicated motions of robots. In addition, the architecture of OpenHRP3 intends to be a common software platform for developing various robot software components in a unified manner based on the "RT-Middleware". These characteristics of OpenHRP3 can promote the efficient development of next-generation robots.