How to Run the Demonstration

Overview

This project contains three simulations built around a 3D particle/fluid system:

• physicssim — Basic SPH fluid simulation. Particles interact via smoothed-particle hydrodynamics inside a bounded box.
• dynamicpaths — Fluid simulation with dynamic pathfinding overlaid.
• plannersim — Full robot path-planning simulation. A robot particle navigates through a fluid environment toward a goal using either A* or RRT* path planning, with optional static or dynamic obstacles. Metrics are recorded to results.csv for analysis.

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Building the Simulations

To build all simulations, run:

make

or

make all

This will generate three executables:

• physicssim
• dynamicpaths
• plannersim (shell launcher) + plannersim.bin (CUDA-enabled binary)

To build them individually:

make physicssim
make dynamicpaths
make plannersim

To clean up all object files and executables:

make clean

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plannersim

plannersim simulates a robot navigating through a 3D particle fluid toward a goal. It uses either A* or RRT* to plan a path through the particle density field, replanning as conditions change. Each completed run logs metrics (time to goal, path length, success, etc.) to results.csv.

Usage

./plannersim [particles] [scenario] [algorithm] [runs] [--headless]

Optional flag for fair benchmarking with explicit failed runs:

./plannersim ... --max-run-seconds <seconds>

Argument	Description	Default
particles	Number of fluid particles	1500
scenario	1 = Particles only, 2 = Static obstacles, 3 = Dynamic obstacles	3
algorithm	0 = A*, 1 = RRT*	0
runs	Number of runs to complete before exiting (0 = run indefinitely)	0
--headless	Run without a window (for benchmarking); can appear anywhere in the args	off
--max-run-seconds	Max simulated seconds allowed per run before logging timeout failure	off

Examples:

# Interactive: 1500 particles, dynamic obstacles, A*
./plannersim

# Interactive: 3000 particles, static obstacles, RRT*
./plannersim 3000 2 1

# Headless benchmark: 5 runs, particles only, A*
./plannersim 1000 1 0 5 --headless

Interactive Controls

Key / Input	Action
Space	Agitate particles (apply random impulses)
1	Switch to Scenario 1 (Particles Only)
2	Switch to Scenario 2 (Static Obstacles)
3	Switch to Scenario 3 (Dynamic Obstacles)
P	Toggle path planner between A* and RRT*
R	Reset the simulation
W / S	Tilt camera up / down
A / D	Rotate camera left / right
+ / -	Zoom in / out
Q / ESC	Quit
Left-click drag	Orbit camera

Benchmarking

The included benchmark.sh script sweeps over particle counts (500–25000), all three scenarios, and both algorithms, and runs a fixed number of attempts per condition with an explicit per-run timeout so failed runs are logged (reduces survivorship bias):

./benchmark.sh

Environment overrides:

RUNS=30 MAX_RUN_SECONDS=180 ./benchmark.sh

After benchmarking, use the analysis script to generate plots and summary statistics:

python analyse.py

results.csv includes both conditional and unconditional fields, including: success, time_to_goal_s (success-only), run_time_s (all runs), and timed_out.

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Other Simulations

physicssim

Basic SPH fluid simulation with no pathfinding. Press Space to agitate particles.

dynamicpaths

SPH fluid simulation with dynamic path overlays. Press Space to agitate particles.