Driven by their versatility and autonomy, advanced unmanned aerial systems have indicated substantial promise along the development of current communication networks, as well as in support of new communication platforms. The resulting integration of robotic and communication systems brings increased levels of complexity, which cannot be modeled accurately by conventional approaches. An example of this are aerial synthetic aperture antennas, in which an aerial robotic swarm coordinates their flight patterns and communication exchanges to produce a synthetic aperture. The accurate representation of such a system mandates the careful simulation of wireless communications, antenna radiation patterns, flight dynamics, and even environmental conditions. This article details an integrated communications and robotics simulation framework, which enables the assessment of these emerging systems. The benefits of this new approach are illustrated for the aerial synthetic aperture antenna example, but extend to a wide array of problems stemming from the union of communications and robotics. This novel modeling platform makes it possible to design and analyze joint flight and communication protocols for unmanned aerial systems. The obtained results provide valuable insights into the operation of swarm-based synthetic aperture antennas. Moreover, the methodology introduced in this work is flexible and can be readily applied to other instances of joint communication and robotic systems.

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无人机中的通信和机器人仿真：以空中合成孔径天线为例

在其多功能性和自主性的推动下，先进的无人机系统在当前通信网络的发展以及对新通信平台的支持中已显示出巨大的希望。机器人和通信系统的最终集成带来了更高水平的复杂性，而这是常规方法无法精确建模的。一个例子是空中合成孔径天线，其中空中机器人群协调其飞行模式并进行通信交换以产生合成孔径。这种系统的精确表示要求仔细模拟无线通信，天线辐射图，飞行动力学甚至环境条件。本文详细介绍了集成的通信和机器人仿真框架，从而可以评估这些新兴系统。这种新方法的优点在航空合成孔径天线示例中得到了说明，但扩展到通信和机器人技术的结合所引起的各种各样的问题。这个新颖的建模平台使设计和分析无人机系统的联合飞行和通信协议成为可能。获得的结果为基于群体的合成孔径天线的操作提供了宝贵的见识。此外，这项工作中介绍的方法是灵活的，可以很容易地应用于联合通信和机器人系统的其他实例。但是扩展到通讯和机器人技术的结合带来的各种各样的问题。这个新颖的建模平台使设计和分析无人机系统的联合飞行和通信协议成为可能。获得的结果为基于群体的合成孔径天线的操作提供了宝贵的见识。此外，这项工作中介绍的方法是灵活的，可以很容易地应用于联合通信和机器人系统的其他实例。但是扩展到通讯和机器人技术的结合带来的各种各样的问题。这个新颖的建模平台使设计和分析无人机系统的联合飞行和通信协议成为可能。获得的结果为基于群体的合成孔径天线的操作提供了宝贵的见识。此外，这项工作中介绍的方法是灵活的，可以很容易地应用于联合通信和机器人系统的其他实例。