On Open- source Multi-robot simulators

Abstract

Open source software simulators play a major role in robotics design and research as platforms for developing, testing and improving architectures, concepts and algorithms for cooperative/multi-robot systems. Simulation environment enables control systems to be developed rapidly and transferred to the real system with minimal change in behaviour. A number of simulators boost of effective data flow between sensors, processors and actuators of a robot/ team through a communication channel. The drive to build an adaptable and capable robotic development environment has led to the emergence of numerous open source application programs. This article discusses freely available open source simulators and their impact in multi mobile robot system research projects. Firstly, the architectures of the different simulation software are discussed. Secondly, their capabilities are discussed with regards to their architectures. Thirdly, multi-robot cooperation theory is presented. Lastly, an example of algorithm development for multi-robot co-operation using one of the discussed simulation platforms is presented.