A simulation-based development and verification architecture for micro uav teams and swarms

In this work, we present an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) simulation-based, hardware and software development and verification architecture structured around the Robot Operating System (ROS). One of the key expectations of such a system is a graceful increase in architectural and computational complexity as the number of vehicles and vehicle complexity increases. In addition, the system is expected to provide the ability to test and verify algorithms both at the software and hardware level before real flight operations. This requirement also couples with the requested flexibility of updating the models and the algorithms based on the results coming from real operations. As such, the designed architecture allows joint simulation and testing at both hardware and software layers for multiple vehicle and swarm operations. Specifically, the architecture consists of distinct and networked layers where hardware elements such as autopilot systems (e.g., Pixhawk, Ardupilot etc.), ground stations and external motion capture/localization systems (e.g., Vicon, Otus Tracker etc.) are integrated around the ROS simulation shell. In addition, the dynamics, sensor models, motion planning and other features can be driven by highly parallel MATLAB/Simulink models. Visualization and visual sensing is obtained through linking of virtual reality with simulation environments such as Gazebo and Airsim. This highly reconfigurable architecture allows research teams to work on multidisciplinary areas such as modeling, control, computer vision, artificial intelligence and machine learning within the same simulation and test environment.