Aldhaheri, S;
Hu, Y;
Xie, Y;
Wu, P;
Kanoulas, D;
Liu, Y;
(2025)
Underwater Robotic Simulators Review for Autonomous System Development.
In:
Oceans Conference Record IEEE.
IEEE
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Abstract
The increasing complexity of underwater robotic systems has led to a surge in simulation platforms designed to support perception, planning, and control tasks in marine environments. However, selecting the most appropriate under-water robotic simulator (URS) remains a challenge due to wide variations in fidelity, extensibility, and task suitability. This paper presents a comprehensive review and comparative analysis of five state-of-the-art, ROS-compatible, open-source URSs: Stonefish, DAVE, HoloOcean, MARUS, and UNav-Sim. Each simulator is evaluated across multiple criteria including sensor fidelity, environmental realism, sim-to-real capabilities, and research impact. We evaluate them across architectural design, sensor and physics modeling, task capabilities, and research impact. Additionally, we discuss ongoing challenges in sim-to-real transfer and highlight the need for standardization and benchmarking in the field. Our findings aim to guide practitioners in selecting effective simulation environments and inform future development of more robust and transferable URSs.
| Type: | Proceedings paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | Underwater Robotic Simulators Review for Autonomous System Development |
| Event: | OCEANS 2025 Brest |
| Dates: | 16 Jun 2025 - 19 Jun 2025 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1109/OCEANS58557.2025.11104581 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1109/oceans58557.2025.11104581 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Reviews, Oceans, Standardization, Benchmark testing, Robot sensing systems, Extensibility, Planning, Complexity theory, Surges, Physics |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Mechanical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10214438 |
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