DANCERS: A Physics and Network Co-Simulator for Communicating Multi-Robot Systems

Multi-robot systems equipped with wireless communication devices can outperform single-robot platforms through cooperation. However, such wireless network face challenges such as the unreliable wireless channels, physical obstacles, uneven terrains, and potential malicious attacks. Studying the interplay between the physical and network aspects of these systems proves challenging because existing physics simulators often lack realistic communication models, while network simulators typically use over-simplified physics and mobility models. To address this gap, we introduce DANCERS, a novel co-simulation platform providing synchronization and information exchange between any robotic and any network simulator. DANCERS is evaluated in terms of computational performance, overhead and correctness, and its capabilities are demonstrated through a multi-robot use case.