Multivehicle simulation system

Abstract

In this thesis, we designed and implemented a simulator that supports multiple robots within a dynamic environment. The goal of this tool is to provide a testing environment for navigational robots that run on the MOOS platform. The simulator is written in C++ and utilizes several open source libraries to create a virtual world for robots to interact with by faking sensor information. A design goal of this thesis has been to make the simulator versatile enough to be useful for a variety of robots, from land to marine. Such a tool is valuable in research because the cost of developing a custom simulator can consume too many man-hours. Reducing this cost by creating a generic and customizable simulator has been the main motivation behind this thesis. It has also been one of the major challenges behind the project.