Design and use paradigms for Gazebo, an open-source multi-robot simulator

Simulators have played a critical role in robotics research as tools for quick and efficient testing of new concepts, strategies, and algorithms. To date, most simulators have been restricted to 2D worlds, and few have matured to the point where they are both highly capable and easily adaptable. Gazebo is designed to fill this niche by creating a 3D dynamic multi-robot environment capable of recreating the complex worlds that would be encountered by the next generation of mobile robots. Its open source status, fine grained control, and high fidelity place Gazebo in a unique position to become more than just a stepping stone between the drawing board and real hardware: data visualization, simulation of remote environments, and even reverse engineering of blackbox systems are all possible applications. Gazebo is developed in cooperation with the Player and Stage projects (Gerkey, B. P., et al., July 2003), (Gerkey, B. P., et al., May 2001), (Vaughan, R. T., et al., Oct. 2003), and is available from http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/gazebo/ gazebo.html.

I. Introduction

The Player and Stage projects have been in development since 2001, during which time they have experienced wide spread usage in both academia and industry. Player is a networked device server, and Stage is a simulator for large populations of mobile robots in complex 2D domains. A natural complement for these two projects is a high fidelity outdoor dynamics simulator; this has taken form in the Gazebo project.