Arena 4.0: a Comprehensive Ros2 Development and Benchmarking Platform for Human-Centric Navigation Using Generative-Model-Based Environment Generation

Building upon the foundations laid by our previous work, this paper introduces Arena 4.0, a significant advancement of Arena 3.0 [1], Arena-Bench [2], Arena 1.0 [3], and Arena 2.0 [4]. Arena 4.0 provides three main novel contributions: 1) a generative-model-based world and scenario generation approach using large language models (LLMs) and diffusion models, to dynamically generate complex, humancentric environments from text prompts or 2D floorplans that can be used for development and benchmarking of social navigation strategies. 2) A comprehensive 3D model database which can be extended with 3D assets and semantically linked and annotated using a variety of metrics for dynamic spawning and arrangements inside 3D worlds. 3) The complete migration towards ROS 2, which ensures operation with state-of-the-art hardware and functionalities for improved navigation, usability, and simplified transfer towards real robots. We evaluated the platforms performance through a comprehensive user study and its world generation capabilities for benchmarking demonstrating significant improvements in usability and efficiency compared to previous versions. Arena 4.0 is openly available at https://github.com/Arena-Rosnav.