  The architecture of a robotics software framework tremendously influences the
effort and time it takes for end users to test new concepts in a simulation
environment and to control real hardware. Many years of activity in the field
allowed us to sort out crucial requirements for a framework tailored for
robotics: modularity and extensibility, source code reusability, feature
richness, and user-friendliness. We implemented these requirements and
collected best practices in Locosim, a cross-platform framework for simulation
and real hardware. In this paper, we describe the architecture of Locosim and
illustrate some use cases that show its potential.
