From Virtual Waters to Real Oceans: A Simulation-Driven Approach to ROV Control System Design

In this paper the software-in-the-Ioop (SIL) approach employed at NTNU's Applied Underwater Robotics Lab-oratory (AUR-lab) for developing control system software for underwater vehicles is described. An underwater simulator based on Gazebo is presented, and the software structure that allows us to transition from simulations to field trials is explained. Multiple examples are given of systems that are developed in simulation and then applied to real-world experiments.