ARGoS: a modular, parallel, multi-engine simulator for multi-robot systems

We present a novel multi-robot simulator named ARGoS. ARGoS is designed to simulate complex experiments involving large swarms of robots of different types. ARGoS is the first multi-robot simulator that is at the same time both efficient (fast performance with many robots) and flexible (highly customizable for specific experiments). Novel design choices in ARGoS have enabled this breakthrough. First, in ARGoS, it is possible to partition the simulated space into multiple sub-spaces, managed by different physics enginesrunning in parallel. Second, ARGoS' architecture is multi-threaded, thus designed to opti- mize the usage of modern multi-core CPUs. Finally, the architecture of ARGoS is highly modular, enabling easy addition of custom features and appropriate allocation of compu- tational resources. We assess the efficiency of ARGoS and showcase its flexibility with targeted experiments. Experimental results demonstrate that simulation run-time increases linearly with the number of robots. A 2D-dynamics simulation of 10,000 e-puck robots can be performed in 60 % of the time taken by the corresponding real-world experiment. We show how ARGoS can be extended to suit the needs of an experiment in which custom functionality is necessary to achieve sufficient simulation accuracy. ARGoS is open source software licensed under GPL3 and is downloadable free of charge

Tipo Pubblicazione: 
Articolo
Author or Creator: 
Pinciroli, Carlo
Trianni, Vito
O'Grady, Rehan
Pini, Giovanni
Brutschy, Arne
Brambilla, Manuele
Mathews, Nithin
Ferrante, Eliseo
Di Caro, Gianni
Ducatelle, Frederic
Birattari, Mauro
Gambardella, Luca Maria
Dorigo, Marco
Publisher: 
Springer Science + Business Media Inc., Seacaucus, N.J. , Stati Uniti d'America
Source: 
Swarm intelligence (Online) 6 (2012): 271–295. doi:10.1007/s11721-012-0072-5
info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Pinciroli, Carlo; Trianni, Vito; O'Grady, Rehan; Pini, Giovanni; Brutschy, Arne; Brambilla, Manuele; Mathews, Nithin; Ferrante, Eliseo; Di Caro, Gianni; Ducatelle, Frederic; Birattari, Mauro; Gambardella, Luca Maria; Dorigo, Mar
Date: 
2012
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/221687
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11721-012-0072-5
info:doi:10.1007/s11721-012-0072-5
http://link.springer.com/journal/11721/6/4/page/1
Language: 
Eng
ISTC Author: 
Ritratto di Vito Trianni
Real name: