MARS: An Educational Environment for Multiagent Robot Simulations

Undergraduate robotics students often find it difficult to design and validate control algorithms for teams of mobile robots. This is mainly due to two reasons. First, very rarely, educational laboratories are equipped with large teams of robots, which are usually expensive, bulky, and difficult to...

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Main Authors: Marco Casini, Andrea Garulli
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2016-01-01
Series:Modelling and Simulation in Engineering
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/5914706
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author Marco Casini
Andrea Garulli
author_facet Marco Casini
Andrea Garulli
author_sort Marco Casini
collection DOAJ
description Undergraduate robotics students often find it difficult to design and validate control algorithms for teams of mobile robots. This is mainly due to two reasons. First, very rarely, educational laboratories are equipped with large teams of robots, which are usually expensive, bulky, and difficult to manage and maintain. Second, robotics simulators often require students to spend much time to learn their use and functionalities. For this purpose, a simulator of multiagent mobile robots named MARS has been developed within the Matlab environment, with the aim of helping students to simulate a wide variety of control algorithms in an easy way and without spending time for understanding a new language. Through this facility, the user is able to simulate multirobot teams performing different tasks, from cooperative to competitive ones, by using both centralized and distributed controllers. Virtual sensors are provided to simulate real devices. A graphical user interface allows students to monitor the robots behaviour through an online animation.
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institution Kabale University
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publishDate 2016-01-01
publisher Wiley
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series Modelling and Simulation in Engineering
spelling doaj-art-5eca1b81ab9c4c8fa3c7fc51f0cc02442025-02-03T01:29:10ZengWileyModelling and Simulation in Engineering1687-55911687-56052016-01-01201610.1155/2016/59147065914706MARS: An Educational Environment for Multiagent Robot SimulationsMarco Casini0Andrea Garulli1Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione e Scienze Matematiche, Università degli Studi di Siena, Via Roma 56, 53100 Siena, ItalyDipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione e Scienze Matematiche, Università degli Studi di Siena, Via Roma 56, 53100 Siena, ItalyUndergraduate robotics students often find it difficult to design and validate control algorithms for teams of mobile robots. This is mainly due to two reasons. First, very rarely, educational laboratories are equipped with large teams of robots, which are usually expensive, bulky, and difficult to manage and maintain. Second, robotics simulators often require students to spend much time to learn their use and functionalities. For this purpose, a simulator of multiagent mobile robots named MARS has been developed within the Matlab environment, with the aim of helping students to simulate a wide variety of control algorithms in an easy way and without spending time for understanding a new language. Through this facility, the user is able to simulate multirobot teams performing different tasks, from cooperative to competitive ones, by using both centralized and distributed controllers. Virtual sensors are provided to simulate real devices. A graphical user interface allows students to monitor the robots behaviour through an online animation.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/5914706
spellingShingle Marco Casini
Andrea Garulli
MARS: An Educational Environment for Multiagent Robot Simulations
Modelling and Simulation in Engineering
title MARS: An Educational Environment for Multiagent Robot Simulations
title_full MARS: An Educational Environment for Multiagent Robot Simulations
title_fullStr MARS: An Educational Environment for Multiagent Robot Simulations
title_full_unstemmed MARS: An Educational Environment for Multiagent Robot Simulations
title_short MARS: An Educational Environment for Multiagent Robot Simulations
title_sort mars an educational environment for multiagent robot simulations
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/5914706
work_keys_str_mv AT marcocasini marsaneducationalenvironmentformultiagentrobotsimulations
AT andreagarulli marsaneducationalenvironmentformultiagentrobotsimulations