Smoke and mirrors — Virtual realities for sensor fusion experiments in biomimetic robotics

Considerable time and effort often go into designing and implementing experimental set-ups (ES) in robotics. These activities are usually not at the focus of our research and thus go underreported. This results in replication of work and lack of comparability. This paper lays out our view of the theoretical considerations necessary when deciding on the type of experiment to conduct. It describes our efforts in designing a virtual reality (VR) ES for experiments in biomimetic robotics. It also reports on experiments carried out and outlines those planned. It thus provides a basis for similar efforts by other researchers and will help make designing ES more rational and economical, and the results more comparable.