This paper proposes a novel methodology for addressing the simulation-reality gap for multi-robot swarm systems. Rather than immediately try to shrink or `bridge the gap' anytime a real-world experiment failed that worked in simulation, we characterize conditions under which this is actually necessary. When these conditions are not satisfied, we show how very simple simulators can still be used to both (i) design new multi-robot systems, and (ii) guide real-world swarming experiments towards certain emergent behaviors when the gap is very large. The key ideas are an iterative simulator-in-the-design-loop in which real-world experiments, simulator modifications, and simulated experiments are intimately coupled in a way that minds the gap without needing to shrink it, as well as the use of minimally viable phase diagrams to guide real world experiments. We demonstrate the usefulness of our methods on deploying a real multi-robot swarm system to successfully exhibit an emergent milling behavior.

中文翻译：

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模拟更少，期望更多：通过低保真模拟让机器人群栩栩如生

本文提出了一种新方法来解决多机器人群系统的仿真与现实差距。我们不是在现实世界的实验失败但在模拟中起作用时立即尝试缩小或“弥合差距”，而是描述这实际上是必要的条件。当不满足这些条件时，我们将展示如何仍然可以使用非常简单的模拟器来 (i) 设计新的多机器人系统，以及 (ii) 在差距非常大时将真实世界的蜂群实验引导到某些紧急行为。关键思想是设计循环中的迭代模拟器，其中真实世界的实验、模拟器修改和模拟实验以一种无需缩小差距而介意差距的方式紧密结合，以及使用最低限度可行的相图来指导现实世界的实验。我们展示了我们的方法在部署真实的多机器人群系统以成功展示紧急铣削行为方面的实用性。