Philipp Dittmann’s research while affiliated with University of Bremen and other places

Advances in computer technology and increasing usage of computer graphics in a broad field of applications lead to rapidly rising demands regarding size and detail of virtual landscapes. Manually creating huge, realistic looking terrains and populating them densely with assets is an expensive and laborious task. In consequence, (semi-)automatic procedural terrain generation is a popular method to reduce the amount of manual work. However, such methods are usually highly specialized for certain terrain types and especially the procedural generation of landscapes composed of different biomes is a scarcely explored topic. We present a novel system, called AutoBiomes, which is capable of efficiently creating vast terrains with plausible biome distributions and therefore different spatial characteristics. The main idea is to combine several synthetic procedural terrain generation techniques with digital elevation models (DEMs) and a simplified climate simulation. Moreover, we include an easy-to-use asset placement component which creates complex multi-object distributions. Our system relies on a pipeline approach with a major focus on usability. Our results show that our system allows the fast creation of realistic looking terrains.

The "VaMEx - Valles Marineris Explorer" initiative is part of the DLR Explorer Initiatives. As such it is an interdisciplinary research program funded by the DLR Space Administration aimed at developing new concepts, algorithms and hardware for swarm-based exploration of the Valles Marineris on Mars. This includes a hominid robotic platform (project VaMEx-VIPe), autonomous swarm navigation including ground vehicles and UAVs (project VaMEx-CoSMiC) that rely on a local positioning and landing system (project VaMEx-LAOLa), and orbital support (VaMEx-NavComNet) serving as a science data, telemetry and telecommand relay between Earth and the in-situ elements and providing near real-time position updates to the other elements. Real validation and verification tests for such complex navigation and exploration systems are difficult, expensive and time-consuming because they require the availability of hardware, realistic environments and software-in-the-loop. In this paper, we present VaMEx-VTB, a virtual testbed (VTB) that enables the verification and validation of such large and complex interdisciplinary research projects during very early phases. The basic idea of VaMEx-VTB is to provide a common software platform for all modules in combination with a sophisticated user-definable computer simulation thereby it helps reducing expensive and time-consuming physical testing. Additionally, it can serve as an integration and discussion hub during the development process. The VTB allows users to configure various aspects of the test scenarios and the test environment, such as physical parameters, atmospheric conditions, or terrain features. This is essential especially for extraterrestrial planetary missions that are difficult to reconstruct on earth. Finally, a sophisticated graphical feedback, based on a state-of-the-art game engine, allows an easy and direct interaction of the engineers with the test case in the VTB. Our modular design based on ROS supports consistent data access for all components. So far, we have implemented a realistic simulation of the relevant environmental parameters and created an adjustable model of the Valles Marineris terrain, based on the HiRISE data. Additionally, the VTB synthesizes realistic sensor input for several algorithms running on the swarm elements. The modular design concept also qualifies the VTB to serve as a testing platform for other extraterrestrial missions in the future.