The generic map visualization framework

- Controlling robots using a multi-agent system is becoming an active research area which includes a lot of challenges regarding localization, management, coordination, task allocation, etc. It is a very important for a human to overview such a system visually - to monitor a robot status, performance and other characteristics. At the same time some concepts relate to all such systems - robots act in certain environment, where there are different kinds of obstacles and objects. In order to fasten initiation of such visualization tools, a new framework is proposed - “Mapclipse” which is based on the popular Eclipse framework. The purpose of the framework is to create a common domain model, API for its management (like reflecting object movements, environment modifications, etc.), a basis for common visualization tasks and provide a means to customize the figures of specific types of objects. This paper describes the concept of the system in detail, the current prototype of framework, some of its extensions, as well as highlights the main challenges in the future.