USARSim: a robot simulator for research and education

Abstract

This paper presents USARSim, an open source high fidelity robot simulator that can be used both for research and education. USARSim offers many characteristics that differentiate it from most existing simulators. Most notably, it constitutes the simulation engine used to run the virtual robots competition within the Robocup initiative. We describe its general architecture, describe examples of utilization, and provide a comprehensive overview for those interested in robot simulations for education, research and competitions.