X-Window based graphical mobile robot simulator for path planning and sensor fusion experiments

This paper describes the architecture of a graphical mobile robot simulator which serves as a platform for conducting path planning and sensor fusion experiments. The simulator consists of three main parts, the user interface, the simulation core and the application package. The system is built on top of the X-Windows graphics package. The paper describes each of simulator parts and the use of the graphics package. The simulation core uses three coordinate systems to conveniently represent the environment, the robot and its sensors. These coordinate systems and the transformations between them are discussed. A path planning algorithm called the Virtual Force Field algorithm has been implemented on the simulator. Its implementation and some sample simulation runs are also included