@inproceedings{ridao03,
	author={P. Ridao and D. Ribas and E. Batlle and E. Hernandez},
	title={Simulation of physical agents. An application to underwater robots},
	booktitle={V Workshop on Physical Agents},
	year={2004},
	month={march},
	address={Girona, SP},
	abstract={Robots are physical agents which move through the world interacting with
		objects, with other physical agents and with the environment. Therefore,
		robots behave following the general laws of the physics. For several years,
		behavioural robotists argued that embodiment was a key issue for success.
		Embodiment means that robots are physical creatures that should experience
		the world directly instead of through simulation. Nevertheless, a long
		development time is needed from the design to the implementation of a robot.
		This is especially true for underwater robots which habitat is particularly
		inaccessible.  During the first steps of the development, simulation is
		very helpful since it allows for the development of preliminary versions
		of the agent software to be implemented. Nevertheless, It should be taken
		into account that this software will be executed by a physical agent in
		a real world. Hence, the physics relevant to the application must be modelled
		and incorporated within the simulation. In this context, embodiment means
		that the agent software will be executed on a virtual robot interacting
		with a virtual world. It also means that virtual dynamics should be as
		close as possible to real dynamics. In this paper, we review the different
		type of simulations that can be used for UUV  development with an special
		emphasis in the related physics. The paper proposes a classification and
		then presents NEPTUNE, a multi-vehicle, real-time, graphical simulator
		based on OpenGL that allows hardware in the loop simulations.}
}