Google Summer of Code & Virtual RobotX

For 2023 we’ve recruited one of our Google Summer of Code students to help us enhance Gazebo for the Virtual Robot X platform. Virtual RobotX (VRX) is a robotics simulation and virtual competition that is a collaboration between RoboNation and the Office of Naval Research and the Naval Postgraduate School. At its core, VRX is an open-source simulation environment, based on Gazebo that is designed to test autonomous maritime robotics software. Many students use Virtual RobotX as stepping stone to the the RobotX competition that happens every other year on physical maritime robotics platforms.

For the summer of 2023 Tejal Barnwal will be helping us to improve the maritime simulation capabilites of Gazebo, and the downstream VRX project. Tejal is a fourth-year mechanical engineering student at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) in Mumbai, India. Over the past three years, she has actively engaged in various institute-level projects and activities focused on robotics. She has conducted various robotics workshops for junior students at IIT Bombay, participated in robotics competitions, and gained valuable experience through involving in research projects. At IIT Bombay Sejal is also involved with the student team working on a self-driving car (SeDriCa), where she led the simulation and behavioral planning efforts for the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Challenge (IGVC).

Tejal Barnwal

Tejal, a student at IIT Bombay, is spending the summer enhancing wave models in Gazebo to create more realistic maritime simulations.

For GSoC 2023, Tejal’s primary goal is to enhance the wave simulation capabilities in Gazebo in order to create more realistic maritime simulations for VRX. Her project will encompass such tasks as refactoring the existing simulation code, fine-tuning parameters, and integrating an alternate wave model. Once these enhancements are completed, Tejal plans to update to update the Gazebo the wind plugin such that it can be applied universally to other objects in the simulation environment, like buoys and other simulation entities. Tejal’s work will allow students participating in VRX to experience the realistic effects of wind and waves in simulation, and help improve robot performance in the real-world VRX competition.