FastSwarmSim

FastSwarmSim (fss) is a lightweight ROS 2 simulator for PX4-compatible multi-rotor vehicles. It combines a streamlined PX4 runtime, MAVROS-compatible ROS interfaces, local LiDAR point-cloud rendering, RViz visualization, and a conservative lock-step simulation clock. The simulator is intended for multi-UAV algorithm development, repeatable simulation-time experiments, and large-scale swarm prototyping.

Documentation: https://shupx.github.io/FastSwarmSim

Source code: https://github.com/shupx/FastSwarmSim.git

Performance: On a desktop-class computer with LiDAR simulation disabled, FastSwarmSim can run a single vehicle at up to 100x real time, five vehicles at 50x, ten vehicles at 30x, and one hundred vehicles at 4x. This performance comes from the trimmed PX4 core, lightweight MAVROS modules, and efficient lock-step simulation-time system.

Packages

Package	Purpose
fss_bringup	Integrated launch files for complete single- and multi-drone PX4/LiDAR/RViz simulations.
fss_px4_sim	Trimmed PX4 1.13.3-based quadrotor simulation runtime, MAVROS Lite bridge, ideal quadrotor dynamics, MAVROS-compatible perfect-drone baseline, and RViz vehicle visualization.
fss_sensing	Local LiDAR point-cloud simulator. It renders the visible cloud from a vehicle pose against a static PCD map through the bundled marsim_render library.
fss_time	ZeroMQ-based conservative lock-step time coordinator, /clock publisher, simulation-speed controls, and C++ helpers/executors for time-synchronized ROS 2 nodes. NOT only for FastSwarmSim, but for all types of ROS nodes
fss_time_interfaces	ROS 2 message and service definitions used by fss_time, including simulation clock control interfaces.

Installation

Binary from ROS apt source

To install FastSwarmSim from the ROS apt source, follow these steps:

sudo apt update
# fss-bringup is the main package that includes all other packages as dependencies
sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-fss-bringup

# ros-$ROS_DISTRO-fss-px4-sim ros-$ROS_DISTRO-fss-sensing ros-$ROS_DISTRO-fss-time ros-$ROS_DISTRO-fss-time-interfaces

Status of fastswarmsim in the ROS2 build farm:

Operating system	ROS 2 distribution	ROS2 build farm status
Ubuntu 22.04	ROS 2 Humble
Ubuntu 24.04	ROS 2 Jazzy	TODO
Ubuntu 26.04	ROS 2 Lyrical	TODO
Ubuntu	ROS 2 Rolling	TODO

Build from source

Install ROS 2, colcon, and rosdep by following the ROS 2 installation guide. The guide also includes solutions for common network issues.

Initialize rosdep once on a new machine, then clone and build the workspace. rosdep install resolves the required system and ROS dependencies:

sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

git clone https://github.com/shupx/FastSwarmSim.git

# for chinese users
git clone https://gitee.com/shu-peixuan/FastSwarmSim.git  

cd FastSwarmSim

source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
colcon build --symlink-install
source install/setup.bash

Source install/setup.bash in every new terminal before running the commands below.

Common Launch Commands

Time coordinator

ros2 launch fss_time time_coordinator.launch.py

Set a maximum simulation speed when needed:

ros2 launch fss_time time_coordinator.launch.py max_real_time_factor:=2.0

PX4 and perfect-drone simulation

ros2 launch fss_px4_sim px4_rotor_sim_single.launch.py
ros2 launch fss_px4_sim px4_rotor_sim_multi.launch.py num_drones:=5
ros2 launch fss_px4_sim perfect_mavros_drone_swarm.launch.py num_drones:=5

Local LiDAR point cloud

ros2 launch fss_sensing fss_local_pointcloud_sim.launch.py

Integrated PX4, LiDAR, and RViz scenes

ros2 launch fss_bringup sim_px4_drone_lidar_single.launch.py
ros2 launch fss_bringup sim_px4_drone_lidar_multi.launch.py num_drones:=3

Further Documentation

• Time coordination and multi-machine setup
• Local point-cloud configuration and DDS tuning
• PX4 simulator capabilities and scaling notes
• Integrated PX4/LiDAR launch details
• Time-coordinator test cases

Run the test suite with:

colcon test
colcon test-result --verbose

Contributors

• Peixuan Shu (Beihang University, China, shupeixuan@qq.com)