Swarm robotics facility in ROS?

Question

I am interested in swarm robotics - I know about swarm simulation in Stage (ver 3.X.X and above - this works when I use stage and fails for stageros). I guess such swarm simulations may be possible in Gazebo (?).

Does ROS provide for any platform/package/software for swarm and/or multi-robot simulation ?

Reference

1. Richard T. Vaughan. Massively Multi-Robot Simulations in Stage. Swarm Intelligence, 2(2-4):189-208, 2008

---

Originally posted by Arkapravo on ROS Answers with karma: 1108 on 2011-09-13

Post score: 3

---

Original comments

Comment by Arkapravo on 2011-09-23:
@kwc : Multimaster support, planned for in Fuerte - can that be potentially an answer to this question ?

Comment by Arkapravo on 2011-09-21:
@kwc : All right ! ....... hope hopen, I have added another screenshot ! ....

Comment by kwc on 2011-09-20:
The question is appropriate, there just aren't any answers. Don't worry about cleaning it up.

Comment by Arkapravo on 2011-09-20:
@kwc : Okay, if it doesn't really suit the topics at answers.ros (I had to create the tag of swarm) then should we scrap it ?

Comment by kwc on 2011-09-19:
http://www.ros.org/wiki/Support "The question was seen. If you didn't get a response then likely nobody has had time to answer you. Alternatively, it could be that nobody knows the answer."

Comment by tfoote on 2011-09-17:
Others can vote your question up. Note that asking for a confirmation that there's no other solution in the entire eco-system is not really possible, for no one is familiar with every ROS package in the world. No reply likely means that there's not another version.

Comment by Arkapravo on 2011-09-16:
@kwc : Hi Ken, I am not getting much of a response on this question. Is there a award of a 'bounty' at answers.ros as in stackoverflow and superuser ?

Answer 1

I think gazebo might be a bit overkill performance-wise although it is theoretically possible. Do you need gazebo for simulation?

There is a stage package for ROS if you were looking for that.

---

Originally posted by dornhege with karma: 31395 on 2011-09-13

This answer was ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 1

---

Original comments

Comment by Arkapravo on 2011-09-13:
@dornhege : Yep - Stage works good, as of now my means for swarm robotics simulations. Any other software/packages will be most welcome.

Comment by dornhege on 2011-09-13:
I was only referring to the fact that stage is supported in ROS directly. I'm not aware of other packages, but someone else might know some.

Comment by Arkapravo on 2011-09-13:
@dornhege : I know about Stage (see the reference) - I am currently using Stage. I wanted to check out if ROS has any other leverages for swarm robotics.