An ARVA Sensor Simulator

Robot Operating System (ROS) framework supports different kind of sensors, typically used to develop robotic applications, such as vision and depth sensors, laser scanners and so on. In this chapter, we present a new ROS package designed to simulate ARVA transceiver sensors: arva_sim. ARVA is a French acronym which stands for Appareil de Recherche de Victims en Avalanche and represents the forefront technology adopted in Search & Rescue operations to localize victims of avalanches buried under the snow. In order to simulate its behavior, this package provides two Gazebo plugins: the transmitter and receiver. The aim of this chapter is to describe the mathematical and theoretical background of the transceiver, discussing its implementation and integration with ROS. To demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed sensor model, we present a simulation scenario in which an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipped with the transceiver sensor performs a basic S&R pattern using the output of ARVA system. It is worth nothing that the proposed ROS package, arva_sim, represents the first simulation model of an ARVA transceiver system and can be useful for the developer to design, test and benchmark faster and smarter search strategies to speed up rescue missions in case of avalanches.