Our simulation tool provides the possibility to simulate a crowd of realistic characters moving in realistic environments shared with our robots. To do so, we use various crowd simulation techniques (RVO, Vision Based, PowerLaw, etc.) and high quality 3D models.
Our 3D engine, Unity, is coupled with ROS (thanks to ROS#) and implement sensors simulation (LiDAR, RGB-D, ultrasound, etc.) and robot control. Using its physical engine, we can simulate a proper robot motion and report on collisions with the crowd.
The connection with ROS allows us to use our technologies and tools as if the simulated robot was a real robot.
The simulator will be available to the public to test their very own navigation testing and evaluate them according to metrics. This version of the simulator, the CrowdBot Challenge will provide to the community a tool to benchmark the performance of different navigation techniques in scenarios we fixed.