The utilization of spherical camera in simulation for service robotics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how spherical cameras can enhance simulation testing for service robots by providing more realistic vision data, improving safety and development processes.

Contribution

It introduces a method to integrate spherical camera recordings into robotic simulators, enabling more accurate vision system testing.

Findings

Spherical cameras improve the realism of simulated vision data.

The system can be extended with rendered objects for enhanced testing.

Integration with existing simulators is feasible and beneficial.

Abstract

Safety is one of the most critical factors in robotics, especially when robots have to collaborate with people in a~shared environment. Testing the physical systems, however, must focus on much more than just software. One of the common steps in robotic system development is the utilization of simulators, which are very good for tasks like navigation or manipulation. Testing vision systems is more challenging, as the simulated data often is far from the real camera readings. In this paper, we show the advantages of using the spherical camera for recording the sequences of test images and a~way to integrate those with existing robotic simulator. The presented system also has the possibility to be extended with rendered objects to further improve its usability.