SETCMAS: An Easy-to-Use Software Stack to Facilitate Simulations and Experiments in Teaching Control of Multi-Agent Systems

This paper presents a software stack named setcmas, for Simulation and Experiments in Teaching Control of Multi-Agent Systems. It aims at facilitating simulations and experiments for teachers and students involved in Control Engineering curricula. The stack is available online and can be used freely for Control Education purposes. It leverages the advantages of ROS, the robot operating system, without requiring any knowledge of it to be used. Control algorithms for multi-agent systems can be implemented in simple Python scripts, and then simulated and validated through experiments with ground mobile robots. The paper presents the content of the stack, the possible architecture used for experiments, and some usages already made for teaching, demonstration, and research work.