A computer program which tries to emulate the behaviour of something – in this course we use simulations of robots moving around an arena.

Attempting to predict aspects of the behaviour of some system by creating an approximate (mathematical) model of it. This can be done by physical modelling, by writing a special-purpose computer program or using a more general simulation package, probably still aimed at a particular kind of simulation (e.g. structural engineering, fluid flow). Typical examples are aircraft flight simulators or electronic circuit simulators.

A graphical computer program that represents the robot and its environment, which emulates the robot's behavior during a simulated run of the robot. This is used to determine a robot's behavior in certain situations, before actually commanding the robot to perform such tasks. Simulation items to consider are: the 3D modeling of the environment, kinematics emulation, path-planning emulation and simulation of sensors. See Sensor, Forward Kinematics and Robot.