In this paper, we describe our OpenUAV multi-robot design studio that enables simulations to run as browser accessible Lubuntu desktop containers. Our simulation testbed, based on ROS, Gazebo, and PX4 flight stack has been developed to facilitate collaborative mission planning, and serve as a sandbox for vision-based problems, collision avoidance, and multi-robot coordination for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). OpenUAV testbed saves students and researchers from the tedious and complex software setup by providing user-friendly Lubuntu containers equipped with PX4 flight controllers and swarm capabilities. The OpenUAV architecture is built around TurboVNC and noVNC WebSockets technology to seamlessly provide real-time web performance for 3D rendering in a collaborative design tool. We have built upon our previous work that leveraged concurrent multi-UAS simulations, and extended it to be useful for underwater, aerial and ground vehicles. The OpenUAV testbed also enables vehicles in gazebo to have visual realistic camera feeds from Unity Game Engine. Three case studies presented in this paper illustrate the scalability, extensibility, and usability of the latest OpenUAV testbed. The first study focuses on interactive performance analysis of Gazebo running in browser sessions with respect to number of consumers. The second case study demonstrates an extended OpenUAV architecture for swarm simulations through multi-host networking using docker swarm. The third study focuses on student engagement of OpenUAV testbed as part of their robotics course work.
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