Abstract: This paper introduces an integrated simulation framework designed to advance the research and development of cooperative multi-robot systems. In contrast to the co-simulation approaches dominant in the state of the art, an architecture combining co-modelling and co-simulation approaches is employed. It allows the synergistic combination of physics-based models, wireless network simulations, and virtual machine environments to facilitate comprehensive software-in-the-loop simulation of complex system behaviors. The reference implementation of this architecture is applied to an industrial setting, simulating multiple Autonomous Transport Vehicles (ATVs) in a factory including raytracing-based lidar sensors and path loss models for network simulation of wireless networks.

Keywords: Simulation, Multi-robot systems, Wireless networks, Software-in-the-loop, Autonomous transport vehicles.

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