A 3D Terrain Generator: Enhancing Robotics Simulations with GANs

Simulation is essential in robotics to evaluate models and techniques in a controlled setting before conducting experiments on tangible agents. However, developing simulation environments can be a challenging and time-consuming task. To address this issue, a proposed solution involves building a functional pipeline that generates 3D realistic terrains using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). By using GANs to create terrain, the pipeline can quickly and efficiently generate detailed surfaces, saving researchers time and effort in developing simulation environments for their experiments. The proposed model utilizes a Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network (DCGAN) to generate heightmaps, which are trained on a custom database consisting of real heightmaps. Furthermore, an Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Network (ESRGAN) is used to improve the resolution of the resulting heightmaps, enhancing their visual quality and realism. To generate a texture according to the topography of the heightmap, chroma keying is used with previously selected textures. The heightmap and texture are then rendered and integrated, resulting in a realistic 3D terrain. Together, these techniques enable the model to generate high-quality, realistic 3D terrains for use in robotic simulators, allowing for more accurate and effective evaluations of robotics models and techniques.