Open Source Simulator for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles using ROS and Unity3D

Abstract

The paper presents URSim: an open source 3D underwater simulation framework for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) developed using Robotics Operating System (ROS) and a real-time game engine called Unity3D. Simulation systems like these enable to implement, test, study and analyze complex systems while minimizing cost and disruption to the environment. URSim provides the user an intuitive way to simulate underwater vehicles and robots. It is capable of simulating feedback control systems, dynamic model, underwater vision and mission planning for underwater vehicles and robots. The simulation provides support for underwater sensor modules, underwater physics, collision kinematics and is highly configurable to simulate a realistic underwater environment. The software architecture is adaptive to algorithms for control systems, image processing, navigation and manipulation.