An integrated framework for the realistic simulation of multi-UAV applications

This paper describes the software architecture of an integrated simulator for the realistic simulation of multi Unmanned aerial vehicle applications. The integrated simulator exploits some already existing tools to simulate a specific part of the overall Unmanned aerial vehicle hardware and software structure: a 3D visualization engine, a physics simulator, a flight control stack and a network simulator to handle communications among Unmanned aerial vehicles. These features are provided by the tools Gazebo, ArduCopterand ns-3 that, however, are not designed to work together in an integrated manner. The solution proposed in this paper is based on a software middleware that coordinates all of these tools, which may optionally be run on multiple interconnected computers, and lets them have a common notion of simulated time during the simulation; moreover, the middleware coordinates the activities of the High-level Logic, which is the software part that implements the strategy and control of the multi Unmanned aerial vehicle application. A Python API is provided to allow developers to write their Unmanned aerial vehicle application (cooperative missions, flocking, etc.) in such a way as to be first simulated and then run onto the real platform with no or few modifications.