A multi-robot simulator for the evaluation of formation control algorithms

Autonomous/unmanned driving has the capability to provide numerous benefits such as better traffic management, increased safety, reduced emission, and enhanced transportation network. Once autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) are deployed, they will have to interact with other such vehicles. Interaction between multiple AGVs is an important area of research where analysis on the performance of algorithms/control schemes of AGVs is carried out. Performing real-world experiments with teams of autonomous vehicles is a challenging task due to cost and complexity. On the other hand, a simulation can emulate reality and provide an inexpensive and less time-consuming development process compared to the real world robots’ testing. Therefore, a simulation tool is developed for multi-robot navigation. This simulator is based on open-source Robot Operating Systems (ROS) and natively supported robotics simulator Gazebo.