Automated Scene Generation for High Fidelity Robotics Simulations

This paper presents a methodology for automatically generating a scene to be used in high fidelity robotic simulators. Modeling and simulation play an important role in the development and testing of robotic motion planning algorithms. Virtual Robotic Experimentation Platform (V-REP) is a robotic simulator that can be used to test state of the art robotics algorithms in environments called scenes. V-REP contains a remote application programming interface (API) for Matlab that allows for control of the simulation from the external application. Using this functionality, an algorithm was developed to automatically create simulation environments. Given the dimensions of the space, the desired total number of rooms, and a room configuration type, the algorithm organizes the layout of the space into a set of rooms and hallways. Using the remote capabilities provided by the Matlab V-REP API, the scene is opened, each of the models is loaded, and the models are put into the appropriate location. The result is a saved V-REP scene file that can be used for testing of any relevant mobile robotic applications. Ultimately this tool can play an important role in running parametric studies and Monte Carlo simulations to test the performance of various motion planning and coordination algorithms.