A game engine-based simulator forautonomous underwater vehicles
Strout, A.B., and Turner, R.M. A game engine-based simulator forautonomous underwater vehicles, in Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Untethered Submersible Technology (UUST 2013), Portsmouth, NH, August 2013.
Abstract:
The ideal development platform for autonomous underwater vehicle control software is an actual physical vehicle. However, limited availability of AUVs and the high costs associated with purchasing and maintaining them often call for the use of computer simulations as a more feasible and exible development platform. The simulation must accurately emulate real-world conditions and equipment to allow control software development in a virtual space. Unfortunately, simulations tend to be developed from the ground up for particular AUVs and are thus idiosyncratic and dicult to reuse, and development time and cost can be substantial.
We are developing a simulation testbed for intelligent control software for AUVs that is based on using off-the-shelf, sophisticated simulation software: game engines. A game engine provides physics, modeling, and rendering capabilities that can be signicantly reduce simulator development time. The particular game engine we are currently using is Unity, which allows network connections to control in-world objects. A translator/network interface then allows existing AUV control software to receive sensor data from and to control simulated AUVs in the world.