Magician simulator — A realistic simulator for heterogeneous teams of autonomous robots

We report on the development of a new simulation environment for use in Multi-Robot Learning, Swarm Robotics, Robot Teaming, Human Factors and Operator Training. The simulator provides a realistic environment for examining methods for localization and navigation, sensor analysis, object identification and tracking, as well as strategy development, interface refinement and operator training (based on various degrees of heterogeneity, robot teaming, and connectivity). The simulation additionally incorporates real-time human-robot interaction and allows hybrid operation with a mix of simulated and real robots and sensor inputs.