[ODE] How do you determine the quality of a physics library?

[ron taņeza]

How do you say this physics SDK is better than another? And that it does its job, that is, the simulations are correct. And how do you prove that to someone with little or no background in physics simulators. I'm using ODE for simulating wheeled mobots -- it's an undergraduate engineering project. I'm close to finishing the project, and I'm expecting the faculty panel to ask that question during project presentation. 

Something like, "Why did you choose ODE?", or "How do you know that the simulations are correct?" Well, I really only had two choices: Dynamechs or ODE. I think ODE has a better docu, has a more active community, plus the test_buggy provided with me the best docu and starting point for the project. I don't know much about physics simulators myself, so I don't know how to answer the second question. Maybe visually, you can see the objects move realistically, but mathematically? I've tried test_ode, but I don't know how to interpret the results. Maybe someone here can provide a brief explanation, in layman's terms.


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