The OpenUAV Swarm Simulation Testbed: a Collaborative Design Studio for Field Robotics

Simulations play a crucial role in robotics research and education. This paper presents the OpenUAV testbed, an open-source, easy-to-use, web-based, and reproducible software system that enables students and researchers to run robotic simulations on the cloud. The key contributions of the paper are threefold. First, OpenUAV saves students and researchers from tedious and complicated software setup by providing web-browser based Linux desktop sessions with robotics software like Gazebo, ROS, PX4 vehicles, ground control software, and swarm simulation capabilities. Second, a containerized desktop session provides the necessary means to save an individual's research work with its dependencies for future reproducibility of the work. Third, the platform provides a mechanism to support photorealistic robotics simulations by combining Unity game engine based camera rendering and Gazebo physics. The paper describes a methodology for creating such a photorealistic aquatic simulation for autonomous underwater vehicles. We also present the various academic and research use-cases of this platform to improve robotics education and research, especially during times like the COVID-19 pandemic, when virtual collaboration is necessary.