WAMbot: Simulation and modelling of a team of autonomous mobile robots

Simulation is an essential early evaluation tool for mobile robot research and development, and different stages of development have individual simulator needs. In this paper, we document details of two simulation tools that were developed for an entry into the MAGIC 2010 challenge, an autonomous ground vehicle competition. In developing the entry, simulators were used in two domains: problem analysis and solution testing. The problem analysis simulator was built using a commercial 3D game engine, whilst the simulator aimed at testing of the solution was built using a standard robotics library. By leveraging existing technologies appropriate for each domain, the task of simulator construction was simplified. The split allowed problem exploration independent of selected hardware, allowing for early simulation. These simulators allowed a team composed mostly of part-time volunteers to construct a complex distributed, multi-robot system and proved essential to our team´s success in the MAGIC 2010 challenge.