Augmented reality for robots: Virtual sensing technology applied to a swarm of e-pucks

We present a novel technology that allows real robots to perceive an augmented reality environment through virtual sensors. Virtual sensors are a useful and desirable technology for research activities because they allow researchers to quickly and efficiently perform experiments that would otherwise be more expensive, or even impossible. In particular, augmented reality is useful (i) for prototyping and assessing the impact of new sensors before they are physically produced; and (ii) for developing and studying the behaviour of robots that should deal with phenomena that cannot be easily reproduced in a laboratory environment because, for example, they are dangerous (e.g., fire, radiations). We realised an augmented reality system for robots in which a simulator retrieves real-time data on the real environment through a multi-camera tracking system and delivers post-processed information to the robot swarm according to each robot's sensing range. We illustrate the proposed virtual sensing technology through an experiment involving 15 e-pucks.