Comparative study of Gazebo and Unity 3D in performing a virtual pick and place of Universal Robot UR3 for assembly process in manufacturing

Abstract

This paper presents a comparison literature study of two potential 3D robotic simulators i.e., Gazebo and Unity 3D to simulate a certain task. Apart of the literature review, the study also conducted a questionnaire survey collected from the robotics community and academia in the field of robotics. The objective of the literature study and the questionnaire is to gain an information related to the most appropriate 3D robotic simulator in creating virtual experience during a certain task which will be used for digital twin in the future study. The selected task is pick and place movement which is the basic part of the assembly process in the manufacturing industry. The questionnaire questions were focused on the user experience in using Gazebo and Unity 3D related to efficiency and other performance tests. To clarify the result obtained from the questionnaire, two identical 3D robotic simulation were built and created on the same assets to provide the objective performance comparison. The simulation is carried out by replicating the same standard 3D scene of UR3 in Gazebo and Unity 3D. According to the literature review, questionnaire, and the simulation result, it provides a new insight to enable a potential digital twin platform and to familiarise the user with the workflow on each platform.