Multi-Robot System Validation: From Simulation to Prototyping with Mini Robots in the Teleworkbench

One challenging aspect in the development of multi-robot systems is their validation in a real environment. However, experiments with real robots are considerably tedious as experimenting is repetitive and consists of several steps: setup, execution, data logging, monitoring, and analysis. Moreover, experiments also require many resources especially in the case when involving many robots. This paper describes the role of the Teleworkbench as a platform for conducting experiments involving mini robots. The Teleworkbench offers functionality that can help users in validating their robot software from simulation to prototyping using mini robots. A traffic management system is used as a scenario for demonstrating the support of the Teleworkbench for validating multi-robot systems.