Spring 2024 GRASP SFI - Michel Hidalgo, Ekumen

“Doing robotics in digital labs: Or how simulations fuel robotics development”
ABSTRACT
How do you do robotics without robots? Ekumen has been profitably providing software consulting services to robotics companies for over a decade, 10000 miles from relevant technological hubs. While multi-causal, a non-negligible factor in the company’s success were the advancements in multi-body dynamics simulation. From prototyping through validation and testing, the robotics industry relies on these simulations to speed up and scale its development workflows. As a byproduct, this tendency has alleviated the need for locality with hardware assets. I will discuss present-day technology in multi-body dynamics simulation, some of our past experience with it in real-world applications, and what we have learned from practice along the way.
PRESENTER
Michel Hidalgo is a senior robotics software engineer and the R&D lead at Ekumen, a software consulting company that specializes in robotics. His experience is primarily in mobile robotics, with stints in marine and aerial robotics. He is also an active contributor within the ROS ecosystem.