On The Development of Robot Fish Swarms in Virtual Reality with Digital Twins

This paper puts forward the use of virtual reality in the development of robotics systems when the testing scenarios are difficult to setup and control. The case examined is of robot fish designed to follow and monitor real schooling fish. A physical robot fish was developed to the point that it could swim. Further development was hampered by a lack of fish to work with. A digital twin of the robot fish was created and placed into virtual reality. Virtual reality allowed simulations to be setup and modified on the fly which were impossible in the real world. The paper demonstrates the benefits of virtual reality in engineering design and in swarm robotics.