Having learned how to simulate robots with Gazebo, in this chapter, we will discuss how to use another powerful and famous simulation software: V-REP (Virtual Robot Experimentation Platform, http://www.coppeliarobotics.com).
V-REP is a multi-platform robotic simulator developed by Coppelia Robotics. It offers many simulation models of popular industrial and mobile robots ready to be used, and different functionalities that can be easily integrated and combined through a dedicated API. In addition, V-REP can operate with ROS using a communication interface that allows us to control the simulation scene and the robots via topics and services. Like Gazebo, V-REP can be used as a standalone software, while an external plugin must be installed to work with ROS.
In this chapter, we will learn how to set up the V-REP simulator and install the ROS...
