Survey of Simulators for Deformable Objects in Robotics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17979/ja-cea.2025.46.12171Keywords:
Robotics, Modelling, Simulation, Control of flexible structures, Flexible and smart materialsAbstract
Simulating deformable objects remains a major challenge in robotics, going from the need to emulate parts of the human body in autonomous surgeries to the modelling of industrial manipulation tasks. This survey reviews the most commonly used environments for deformable object simulation, highlighting and evaluating their most relevant features. Specifically, eight different systems will be presented and analyzed, including NVIDIA Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, and SOFA. Additionally, three libraries from the Unity game engine that have been used to model deformable objects are described in detail. This paper provides a guide helping in the selection of the most suitable tools for their respective projects.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Alberto Zafra-Navarro, Rosario Aragüés, Gonzalo López-Nicolás
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