AVLib: A Simulink R® library for multi-agent systems research

This paper presents a library of Simulink blocks, aimed at facilitating research and education in the area of multi-vehicle systems. The inherent complexity involved in modeling, simulating and experimenting with multi-vehicle systems presents significant challenges for researchers, educators and students. There is a need for re-usable building blocks implementing standard vehicle models and control laws, as well as convenient visualization components and interfaces. Furthermore, well-designed system building blocks make the transition from simulation to actual hardware experiments as seamless as possible. The described library, called AVLib, provides such tools, implemented as a set of Simulink blocks that are easy to use, can be extended with other Simulink blocks, and are scalable to model systems comprised of several hundreds of agents. We present several case studies showing how the AVLib library can facilitate research of multi-vehicle systems.