Simulation of a Wheeled Robot using ROS

Simulators are the tools used to study the behaviour of an entity, in this case, Wheeled Mobile Robots. These simulators played a significant role in robotics research as a tool for effectively testing algorithms, concepts and strategies. One such widely used simulator in the field of robotics is Gazebo. This paper overviews how a differential drive robot is simulated using Gazebo in a ROS environment. ROS is an open-source robot operating system. As ROS is open-source, many people have contributed to building robot software systems. These software systems can be used for various research and other requirements accordingly. Gazebo enables Simulation of the world, physical model, sensors and control system through the Unified Robot Description Format (URDF) file. ROS is interfaced with Gazebo to allow the implementation and usage of various robotic software systems and tools on the simulated Robot. In this paper, Localisation, Mapping and Path Planning algorithms are being implemented on the mobile Robot.