This could be software for anything you use in your robot making, from conception to design, to testing and control. I'd like to steer away from listing microcontroller development environments (Arduino IDE, PICAXE Programming Editor, etc.)
Post your favorites in the comments and I'll compile a list.
I have yet to use it, but, a few people here have made use of OpenCV. I make use of OpenSCAD for printable parts. I did use inkscape to make a layout for a batch of robot bases I could cut out of a flat sheet of foambaord.
I use ROS for programming, I use ROS for programming, Gazebo for simulation, solidworks for CAD, TINA for circuits simulation and eagle for board layouts.
Notepad++ is my favorite for any programming and scripting, and for a while I liked ArduinoDroid… but Google Play ruined that experience (and I lost $10 investment)
Probably no one else does this, but I use Microsoft’s Visual Studio with the Visual Micro plugin (best $29 investment I could have made) for my Arduino development. I also have a Jetbrains Resharper license since I am a PC dev by trade.
This allows real time debugging within a very nice IDE.
I do also use blender but hardly ever for model creation. I use it to take CAD models and turn them into good looking .DAE files to use with Gazebo. I’ve tried learning Blender for modeling a few times, but after so many years of using CAD its hard to learn Blender’s (or any mesh based software) pipeline for content creation. I’ve kind of given up on trying now and just realize I’m much quicker with a CAD program.
I do use inkscape a ton, but its usually for creating a graphic for a report or presentation. I’ve never used it for engineering. I’ve tried many vector graphic programs and think it is definitely the best free and is better than a lot of paid once.
I also used OpenRAVE (http://openrave.org/) for a project about a year ago. I found it to be really powerful but a little tricky. If someone is looking to do advanced stuff with robot kinematics I would recommend taking a glance. It offers analytical kinematic solutions for most robot arms and has a nice python interface. My only complaint is that it is so flexible and there are so many ways to do one thing that it is a little confusing and overwhelming. I’m thinking Moveit! (moveit.ros.org) is much easier but I haven’t really used it yet.
@ignoblegnome: Hi, I used Auto CAD and for the programing I used the Keil uvision and MPLAB for smaller projects and for the bigger projects I used IAR embedded workbench and that works fine for me and even for simulation I used Proteus that is really good.
