UUV Simulator: A Gazebo-based package for underwater intervention and multi-robot simulation

Abstract

This paper describes the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) Simulator, an extension of the open-source robotics simulator Gazebo to underwater scenarios, that can simulate multiple underwater robots and intervention tasks using robotic manipulators. This is achieved mainly through a set of newly implemented plugins that model underwater hydrostatic and hydrodynamic effects, thrusters, sensors, and external disturbances. In contrast to existing solutions, it reuses and extends a general-purpose robotics simulation platform to underwater environments.