A simulation-based virtual environment to study cooperative robotic systems

Simulation plays important roles in experimenting with, understanding, and evaluating the performance of cooperative robotic systems. Typically, simulation-based studies of robotic systems are conducted on the computer, without involving any real system components. This paper presents a new hybrid approach to simulation that allows real robots as well as robot models to work together in a simulation-based virtual environment. This capability of robot-in-the-loop simulation effectively bridges conventional simulation and real system execution, augmenting them to constitute an incremental study and measurement process. It is especially useful for large-scale cooperative robotic systems whose complexity and scalability severely limit experimentations in a physical environment using real robots. We present the architecture of this simulation-based virtual environment that, together with an incremental study process and associated experimental frames, can support systematic analysis of cooperative robotic systems. An example of robotic convoy is provided. Some measurement metrics are developed and simulation results are described. An experimental setup for robot-in-the-loop simulation is discussed.