Airsim: How can I add other Vehicle types and features to Airsim?

[sinanonur]

First of all is it possible to add other vehicle types other than cars and drones (for example boats or submarines,...) by modifying the source code? I am assuming yes since I don't see why not. :)

I have tried reading the documentation and had a look at the source code but It is more time consuming than I expected because I couldn't find related documentation or pointers.

Current documentation is mainly focused on using the Library. For the architecture part I also read the whitepaper. From what I understand from the documentation I will have to:

• Add a new Vehicle Model in Airsim
• Add new Sensor models if not supported
• Perhaps add a new type of controller
• Adjust Physics engine if some fundamental function is not supported (not sure if needed).
• Add wrappers to the necessary environments (Unreal or Unity)

I'd appreciate if I am wrong in any of those. Apart from those:

• How is the flow diagram for an example simulation What calls what and what kind of information is communicated?
• Where can I find the details on what I should Implement an what those are (I presume it should be similar to what we have in vehicles/car/api in airlib
• Where Exactly is the mappings from controls to the applied forces mentioned in the white paper?
• What wrappers are required for both Unreal and Unity environment?

Long story short I want to have a better picture of how the system works and I am not sure where to go on.

These are many questions at once but I'd be happy if information is provided. I may also contribute by adding the other vehicle type that I develop (If successful).

Thank you.

[whxru]

Hope this repo could be helpful.

[mitchellspryn]

Author of the other repo here.

The linked repo is good for robots that can be described in terms of simple kinematics (arms, skid-steer bots, etc). It has some limitations that are relevant to point out: It does not handle floating bots such as boats - that requires a bit of custom setup in the unreal engine. It also does not have unity support.

[mitchellspryn]

Possible? Sure.

What you want to do? Probably not.

Simulating a car is super complex. A lot of work has gone into UE to make simulation of the car accurate - even down to simulating the movement (slip) of the tires. In the car mode, AirSim uses that class library. UrdfSim does not - its goal is to model simpler robots. You have 2 options (aside from starting from scratch and rolling your own):

1) Dig into the code of AirSim and modify the car model / code to suit your needs.
2) Use UrdfSim and accept that the simuation isn't going to be very high quality.