The Rock-Gazebo Integration and a Real-Time AUV Simulation

Simulation is an important step of a robotics project. It helps saving time and resources during the project development phase reducing hardware requirements and field tests deployments. Through simulations it is possible to test algorithms in virtually any environment. As complex robots are usually manged by robotics frameworks, a framework-simulator integration is a powerful tool, which allows design and verification of algorithms implemented straight into frameworks. The Gazebo simulator is already integrated with the Robot Operating System (ROS) endorsing its importance to the robotics community. This paper introduces the integration between the Gazebo simulator and the Robot Construction Kit (Rock) framework to allow a real-time simulation. To export simulation resources, framework components are instantiated and synchronized inside a Gazebo system plug in. Each component is a C++ class implemented separately from others classes. Through this approach new components can be easily integrated to extend the simulation capabilities. An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) simulation is presented as a use case of the integration. This use case comprises fluid statics and dynamics simulation, thruster models and an underwater environment visualization.