Simulation and Semantic Description of a Mobile Manipulator

Abstract

The design and implementation of robotic systems have increasingly shifted toward software-centric development, where simulation plays a central role in the validation and integration of the system. State-of-the-art simulators such as Gazebo and NVIDIA Isaac Sim support rapid prototyping, but primarily emphasize geometric, physical, and visual modeling. Meanwhile, modern robotic systems have become highly interdisciplinary—requiring the consistent integration of mechanical, control, communication, and software layers. This paper introduces a hypergraph-based ontological description framework that unifies these heterogeneous aspects within a single, modular representation. The proposed model leverages the mathematical formalism of directed hypergraphs to capture many-to-many relationships among components, supporting scalable and interoperable robot design. A case study demonstrates the construction of a mobile-manipulator robot, including its corresponding Gazebo simulation and ROS configuration files. Future work will extend the framework toward multi-robot systems and deeper software-level abstractions, enabling greater reusability and semantic consistency across simulation, deployment, and control environments.