Multi-Platform Hardware In The Loop (HIL) Simulation for Decentralized Swarm Communication Using ROS and GAZEBO

Swarm of robots is a group of multiple autonomous agents, collaborating with each other to achieve collective missions such as surveillance and tracking. In Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) swarms, robust and decentralized communication between the agents is required. To this end, Software-In- The-Loop (SIL) is performed before the actual flight to avoid the risk of failure. However, single-platform-based simulations can neither fully encounter nor resolve the communication challenges. In this work, we target to incorporate the real-time communication challenges such as network failure, faced by multi-agent systems via Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) simulation using Robot-Operating-System (ROS), Gazebo and off the shelf communication modems. A Ground-Control-Station (GCS) is developed to monitor and supervise autonomous UAVs missions. The multi-platform HIL completely emulates the multi-agent system and the communication between the agents, thereby reducing the risk of swarm failure.