A Multi Agent Simulator for Disaster Prevention and First Response Applications

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has exponentially grown in the last decades thanks to their versatility and ease of use. However, deploying a single large drone might not be efficient for completing tasks compared to the use of a heterogeneous swarm of smaller and lighter drones, which can better adapt to different application scenarios and reduce the mission time. In this sense, Search and Rescue (SAR) activities represent an important field of application. Heterogeneous multiagent systems require ad-hoc Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) algorithms to effectively manage the agents of the swarm. Hence, there is a need for an efficient simulator that allows for the validation of such GNC techniques, taking advantage of the positive aspects of a risk-free virtual environment before realworld deployment. In this sense, the main aim of this paper is to propose a heterogeneous Simulink-based multi-agent flight simulator that is able to support researchers in the representation of realistic scenarios before effectively conducting real tests. The effectiveness of the proposed simulator, which is part of the project “CHeMSys: Cooperative Heterogeneous Multi-drone System for disaster prevention and first response,” is evaluated in several scenarios, considering ground, water, and air vehicles.