MagBotSim: Physics-Based Simulation and Reinforcement Learning Environments for Magnetic Robotics

TL;DR

MagBotSim is a physics-based simulation environment designed for developing and testing reinforcement learning algorithms for magnetic robotic swarms, aiming to enhance manufacturing automation through magnetic levitation systems.

Contribution

This work introduces MagBotSim, a dedicated simulation platform for magnetic levitation robotic swarms, facilitating research in intelligent control and manipulation in manufacturing.

Findings

Enables development of RL algorithms for magnetic robotics

Supports simulation of large-scale magnetic robot swarms

Lays groundwork for advanced manufacturing automation

Abstract

Magnetic levitation is about to revolutionize in-machine material flow in industrial automation. Such systems are flexibly configurable and can include a large number of independently actuated shuttles (movers) that dynamically rebalance production capacity. Beyond their capabilities for dynamic transportation, these systems possess the inherent yet unexploited potential to perform manipulation. By merging the fields of transportation and manipulation into a coordinated swarm of magnetic robots (MagBots), we enable manufacturing systems to achieve significantly higher efficiency, adaptability, and compactness. To support the development of intelligent algorithms for magnetic levitation systems, we introduce MagBotSim (Magnetic Robotics Simulation): a physics-based simulation for magnetic levitation systems. By framing magnetic levitation systems as robot swarms and providing a dedicated simulation, this work lays the foundation for next generation manufacturing systems powered by Magnetic Robotics. MagBotSim's documentation, videos, experiments, and code are available at: https://ubi-coro.github.io/MagBotSim/