High-Fidelity General-Purpose Robotic Simulation Framework for Artificially Intelligent Space Exploration Vehicles

Abstract

This paper presents the design, open-problems, and preliminary results of a long-term research project into the development of a sophisticated simulation framework for artificially intelligent space exploration vehicles. This research project uses popular open-source software libraries and tools from the academic literature as its base and extends on top of it. The purpose of this project is to improve the current state of general-purpose robotic simulation technology in order to improve real-world space exploration vehicles and the artificially intelligent algorithms that they deploy. Artificially intelligent space exploration vehicles are dependent on simulation technology because simulators are used throughout the entire design and development process, and this means that the state, accuracy, and capabilities of the simulation technology is very indicative to the future of space exploration. General-purpose robotic simulators are a special class of simulator designed to simulate everything inherent in a real-world robotics application. The problem with the current general-purpose robotic simulation technology is that the behavior of the simulated vehicles is not realistic enough and does not emulate the real-world to a high enough degree of accuracy. The goal of the research being presented in this paper is to greatly increase the precision and accuracy of the vehicles behavior so as to mimic the real-world behavior as closely as possible, which in turn will produce better real-world artificially intelligent algorithms and space vehicles.