Simulation of Autonomous Robot Teams with Adaptable Levels of Abstraction

Simulation is one of the most important Tools for the development of soft- and hardware for autonomous robots. Depending on the purpose of the simulation different levels of abstraction are required for the simulation of a robot's motion and sensors as well as its interaction with the environment. The present thesis discusses the simulation of autonomous robots with different levels of abstraction. Methods are derived which allow the simultaneous simulation of multiple robots within the same simulation using different levels of abstraction, thus allowing to use the simulation for differing purposes. Besides methods for the simulation of a robot's motion and sensors on different levels of abstraction, methods for adaptable modeling of the robots and validation of the simulation are discussed. The developed methodology is the base for the "Multi-Robot-Simulation-Framework". This framework is the foundation for several simulations of wheeled, humanoid and four-legged robots which are described as examples in this thesis