Simulation-Based Engineering with Hybrid Testbeds

The development of new software applications in mobile robotics is very challenging due to the complexity oftasks and the multitude of involved components. The hybridtestbed idea, combining the advantages of virtual and realtestbeds, shortens the development cycle with little effort.Hybrid testbeds provide the possibility to exchange real andsimulated components at any time without influencing thefurther data processing pipeline. In this paper, we describea robust communication model based on generic interfacesallowing the transfer of data and commands across system borders. Based on this generic interface concept, hybrid testbeds, containing simulated as well as real hardware components, can easily be set up. Furthermore, the presented concept additionally allows physically separated systems, and thus supports simulation-based engineering combining development strategies like hardware-in-the-loop, co-design and concurrent engineering. The applicability of the introduced approach is shown in the development process of a mobile localization unit. It consists of several sensors and an internal processing unit for position estimation. Starting in a virtual environment, the unit has been implemented by replacing the simulated components successively by their physical counterparts leading to a final setup with real hardware. Finally, the simulation system itself is used to command the localization unit and to visualize the raw sensor and processed data in the virtual environment.