Usar: A Game Based Simulation for Teleoperation

Abstract

We are developing simulations of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Reference Test Facility for Autonomous Mobile Robots (Urban Search and Rescue) in order to develop and test our strategies for Robots-Agents-People (RAP) team coordination and control. We have shortened the simulation development cycle to a mere two months by using a commercial game engine to provide high quality graphics and dynamics and taking advantage of the sophisticated development environments available for modern games. In this paper we present our architecture and approach for using engineering models, digital photographs, and physical measurements to rapidly produce game-engine based high fidelity teleoperation simulations.