The simulation of how a gas disperses in a environment is a necessary asset for the development of olfaction-based autonomous agents. A variety of simulators already exist for this purpose, but none of them allows for a sufficiently convenient integration with other types of sensing (such as vision), which hinders the development of advanced, multi-sensor olfactory robotics applications. In this work, we present a framework for the simulation of gas dispersal and sensing alongside vision by integrating GADEN, a state-of-the-art Gas Dispersion Simulator, with the Unity 3D, a video game development engine that is used in many different areas of research and helps with the creation of visually realistic, complex environments. We discuss the motivation for the development of this tool, describe its characteristics, and present some potential use cases that are based on cutting-edge research in the field of olfactory robotics.
Keywords: CFD; artificial olfaction; computer vision; gas dispersion; mobile robotics; simulation engine.