Open source robotics DDS interface for Unity3D

Unity3D is a game engine that uses the GPU to render 3D environments, unlike typical robotic simulators such as Gazebo which strictly un on the CPU. The advantage is that much more complex environments can be generated with ease, including virtual reality environments where the user can interact with simulated robots in first person. Confirmat Robotics embraces this technology. To directly communicate with ROS2 nodes I developed a Unity package that adds DDS communication in Unity3D. DDS is the communication that ROS2 uses. In this way, ROS2 messages can be published and read directly in Unity3D. The code is open source and available here.

I have given the famous turtle simulation from ROS a modern look. You can control a turtle via ROS2 and it will swim around in Unity3D. The turtle is equipped with a ‘headcam’ from which the images are streamed to ROS2.