pybullet-fleet 0.3.0

Multi-robot simulation framework with PyBullet

PyBulletFleet

Mixed Fleet Grid 100robots_grid_demo.py	Cube Patrol 100robots_cube_patrol_demo.py
Mobile Pick & Drop pick_drop_mobile_100robots_demo.py	Arm Pick & Drop pick_drop_arm_100robots_demo.py

A kinematics-first simulation framework for large-scale multi-robot fleets, built on PyBullet and designed for fast N× real-time evaluation.

What is PyBulletFleet?

Different simulation goals call for different tools. Physics-focused simulators (Gazebo, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, etc.) excel at accurate contact dynamics, sensor modelling, and single-robot control — but stepping a full physics engine for every robot becomes the bottleneck when you need to evaluate fleet-level systems at scale.

PyBulletFleet sits in a different part of the design space: it is a kinematics-first, fleet-scale simulation engine whose primary goal is to enable fast development and testing of the software that orchestrates robot fleets rather than the software that controls individual robots.

Design Priorities

• Speed over fidelity — Fleet algorithms (task allocation, traffic control, path planning) must be tested with hundreds to thousands of robots running much faster than real time. Kinematics-based stepping — teleporting each robot to its next pose without calling stepSimulation() — removes the physics bottleneck and enables N× real-time execution.
• System integration over low-level control — The primary consumers are high-level systems: WMS (Warehouse Management Systems), task orchestrators, fleet managers, and monitoring dashboards. These systems issue goals, observe progress via state snapshots, and react to events — they do not need joint-level torque feedback.
• Scale over detail — Validating behaviour at 100+ robot scale matters more than modelling individual link dynamics or sensor noise.
• Interoperability — The simulation is designed around a callback-driven step loop and snapshot-friendly state model, so that it can be plugged into larger orchestration frameworks, replay pipelines, or external control systems (e.g., gRPC / ROS 2) as those interfaces are built out.
• Physics as an option — When physical interaction is needed (grasping, conveyor dynamics, contact verification), full PyBullet physics can be switched on per-scenario without changing the rest of the stack.

Target Use Cases

Use Case	Description
Fleet algorithm evaluation	Test path planning, task allocation, and traffic control for large robot fleets at N× real-time speed
Warehouse simulation	Simulate pick-and-place, patrol, and transport operations with mobile robots and arms
Scalability benchmarking	Measure how fleet software scales from tens to thousands of agents
Rapid prototyping	Quickly iterate on multi-robot behaviors with minimal boilerplate

Quick Start

Install from PyPI

pip install pybullet-fleet

Or install from source (for development)

git clone https://github.com/yuokamoto/PyBulletFleet.git
cd PyBulletFleet
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Run a demo

# If installed from source:
python examples/scale/100robots_grid_demo.py

Most demo scripts accept a --robot argument to swap the robot model. Pass a model name (resolved via resolve_urdf()) or a direct URDF path:

python examples/scale/100robots_grid_demo.py --robot racecar
python examples/arm/pick_drop_arm_demo.py --robot kuka_iiwa
python examples/models/resolve_urdf_demo.py --list

Category	Scripts	--robot default	Alternatives
Arm demos	examples/arm/pick_drop_arm_*.py, rail_arm_demo.py	panda	kuka_iiwa, arm_robot
Mobile demos	examples/mobile/path_following_demo.py	husky	racecar, mobile_robot
Scale demos (mobile)	100robots_cube_patrol_demo.py, pick_drop_mobile_100robots_demo.py	husky	racecar, mobile_robot
Scale demos (arm)	pick_drop_arm_100robots_demo.py	panda	kuka_iiwa, arm_robot
Model demos	resolve_urdf_demo.py, robot_descriptions_demo.py	panda / tiago	any registered model

100robots_grid_demo.py has two arguments: --robot for the mobile robot (default: husky) and --arm-robot for the arm (default: panda).

See Tutorial 6 — Robot Models for the full model resolution system.

Performance

Results from a single test environment (Intel i7-1185G7, 32 GB RAM, Ubuntu 20.04). Your numbers will vary depending on hardware.

Agents	Real-Time Factor	Step Time
100	46×	2.2 ms
500	7.6×	13.2 ms
1000	3.3×	30.0 ms
2000	1.1×	94.8 ms

Kinematics mode (physics OFF), headless. See Benchmark Results for full data, component breakdown, and methodology.

Robot Models

PyBulletFleet includes a model resolution system that loads robots by name from multiple sources:

from pybullet_fleet import MultiRobotSimulationCore, Agent, Pose, resolve_urdf

sim = MultiRobotSimulationCore()

# Resolve by name — searches local robots/, pybullet_data, robot_descriptions
urdf = resolve_urdf("panda")

# Agent.from_urdf() calls resolve_urdf() internally
agent = Agent.from_urdf(urdf_path="panda", pose=Pose.from_xyz(0, 0, 0), sim_core=sim)

Tier	Source	Example models
0 — local	robots/ directory	arm_robot, mobile_robot, mobile_manipulator
1 — pybullet_data	PyBullet bundled	panda, kuka_iiwa, r2d2
2 — ROS	ROS install paths	(future)
3 — robot_descriptions	pip package	tiago, pr2 (pip install robot_descriptions)

Run python examples/models/resolve_urdf_demo.py --list to see all registered models and their availability.

Documentation

📖 Full documentation: Read the Docs

For local builds:

cd docs && sphinx-build -b html . _build/html

Development Setup

A root Makefile provides all common dev commands. Run make help to list targets.

make verify        # Lint + test (CI subset, excludes docs/security)
make test          # Tests with coverage (75% threshold)
make test-fast     # Quick test (stop on first failure)
make lint          # All pre-commit hooks (black, pyright, flake8)
make format        # Auto-format with black
make typecheck     # Pyright type check
make bench-smoke   # Quick benchmark (~10s)
make docs          # Sphinx docs (warnings = errors)
make clean         # Remove caches and build artifacts

Pre-commit hooks

Install pre-commit hooks for automatic formatting and linting on commit:

pip install pre-commit
pre-commit install