Kinematics Dynamics and Optimization Library - main library
DART is a collaborative, cross-platform, open source library created by the
Georgia Tech Graphics Lab and Humanoid Robotics Lab. The library provides data
structures and algorithms for kinematic and dynamic applications in robotics
and computer animation.
DART is distinguished by it's accuracy and stability due to its use of
generalized coordinates to represent articulated rigid body systems and
computation of Lagrange's equations derived from D.Alembert's principle to
describe the dynamics of motion.
For developers, in contrast to many popular physics engines which view the
simulator as a black box, DART gives full access to internal kinematic and
dynamic quantities, such as the mass matrix, Coriolis and centrifugal forces,
transformation matrices and their derivatives. DART also provides efficient
computation of Jacobian matrices for arbitrary body points and coordinate
frames. Contact and collision are handled using an implicit time-stepping,
velocity-based LCP (linear-complementarity problem) to guarantee
non-penetration, directional friction, and approximated Coulomb friction cone
conditions. For collision detection, DART uses FCL developed by Willow Garage
and the UNC Gamma Lab.
DART has applications in robotics and computer animation because it features a
multibody dynamic simulator and tools for control and motion planning.
Multibody dynamic simulation in DART is an extension of RTQL8, an open source
software created by the Georgia Tech Graphics Lab.
This package contains the main library of DART.
