Research Article

MARS: An Educational Environment for Multiagent Robot Simulations

Table 1

Description of main Exp_status fields.

Field nameDescription

Robots Number of robots used (default = 1)
Pose Robots pose [ (meters); (meters); angle (radians)]
Initial_pose Initial pose of robots
Sampling_time Sampling time (seconds)
Iteration Actual iteration of the main simulation loop
Time Elapsed experiment time (seconds)
Stop_time Max duration of the experiment (seconds)
Workspace Vertexes defining the polygonal workspace in clockwise order
Bounds Bounds of the outer box of the workspace (meters) [min_, max_, min_, max_]
Non-holonomic True if robots have nonholonomic drive; false for holonomic drive (default = true)
Command_delay Transmission delay (seconds)
Geometric_center Coordinates of the geometric center of the robot
Exp_over True if the experiment is over
Exp_over_msg Message describing why the experiment is over
Filename Name of the controller file
Version Simulator version
Addons List of add-ons to be used
Addons_suffix List of suffixes to be used in add-on’s filename

Robot Robot mechanical characteristics
Robot.Max_linear_speed Maximum linear speed (m/s)
Robot.Wheels_semiaxis_length Semiaxis length (m)
Robot.Diameter Diameter of robot chassis (m)
Robot.Distance_center_barycenter Distance from the geometric center of the robot to the center of rotation

Animation Animation structure
Animation.Title Title of the simulation (default = “[Simulation]”)
Animation.Grid Enable/disable grid (default = true)
Animation.Show_initial_pose Show/hide initial pose of robots (default = true)
Animation.Show_real_shape If true, the actual robot shape is shown; otherwise, a pointwise robot is depicted (default = true)
Animation.Wake Enable/disable robots’ wake (default = true)
Animation.Wake_style If wake is enabled, use the defined style; styles are the same as in the Matlab function plot (default = “-”)
Animation.Playback_speed Simulation playback speed in seconds (default = 1)
Animation.Enable Enable the animation (default = true)
Animation.Base_colors Base colors to be used in the animation; they will be repeated if needed
Animation.Colors Robot colors to be used in the animation; they are computed repeating the base colors if needed

History Historical data structure
History.Time Simulation time
History.Pose Robot pose
History.Command Robot command
History.Command_time Time when the command is received