The simulations directory (ode_robots/simulations) contains different simulations mostly originated from our work on the self-organization of behavior.

You can just go into one directory, type make and after successful compilation start to start a simulation.
For convenience you should start with one of the template directories like template_sphererobot. Both the simulation file main.cpp of the template_sphererobot simulation and robot definitions in sphererobot3masses.cpp are really good commented and therfore recommended as first example. You can easy find them by clicking on the tab "Examples" at the top of the page.
For creating your own simulation just type:
$> ./createNewSimulation.sh template_sphererobot my_sim
to create the directory my_sim, adapt it to your needs, run make and start and it should work.