ROS-Based Multi-Agent Systems COntrol Simulation Testbed (MASCOT)

TL;DR

This paper introduces MASCOT, an open-source ROS-based simulation testbed for multi-agent systems with quadcopters, enabling testing of decentralized control algorithms under realistic physics conditions.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel simulation testbed that bridges the gap between simple control models and real quadcopter dynamics, supporting various control algorithms.

Findings

Tested linear and nonlinear control laws successfully.

Demonstrated the testbed's effectiveness for multi-agent control.

Provided an accessible open-source platform for researchers.

Abstract

This paper presents a simulation testbed developed for testing and demonstration of decentralized control algorithms designed for multi-agent systems. Aimed at bridging a gap between theory and practical deployment of such algorithms, this testbed provides a simulator with multi-agent systems having quadcopter agents. It is used to test the control algorithms designed assuming simple agent dynamics like a single or double integrator. This is based on the fact that under certain assumptions, quadcopter dynamics can be modeled as a double integrator system. A gazebo simulator with a physics engine as ODE (Open Dynamics Engine) is used for simulating the dynamics of the quadcopter. Robot Operating System is used to develop communication networks and motion control algorithms for the different agents in the simulation testbed. The performance of the test bed is analyzed by implementing linear control laws such as position control, leaderless consensus, leader-follower consensus, and non-linear control law for min-max time consensus. This work is published as an open-source ROS package under MIT license at https://github.com/Avi241/mascot. A docker image is also developed for easy setup of the system.