Case Study: High performance simulation

Partner: Amazon Web Services

Challenge

Amazon Web Services (AWS) sought to demonstrate how cloud-native robotics simulation can scale using Open 3D Engine (O3DE) and ROS 2, enabling developers to run high-fidelity environments, multi-robot scenarios, and distributed sensor simulation at massive scale. To support this vision, AWS needed a realistic, performant, and extensible robotics demo showcasing how modern game-engine-grade graphics and physics could integrate seamlessly with ROS 2 and cloud compute resources.

Key challenges included:

  • Bridging game-engine rendering with robotics simulation through ROS 2-native interfaces.
  • Simulating multiple robots and sensors in real time, with realistic LiDAR, camera, and physics behavior.
  • Creating a reusable demonstration showing O3DE’s scalability, modularity, and cloud-deployment potential.
  • Ensuring ROS 2 compatibility across navigation, perception, and control pipelines.

Solution

Robotec.ai partnered with AWS to build an end-to-end robotics simulation demo using Open 3D Engine, ROS 2, and the Robotec GPU Lidar (RGL) Library. The demo showcased how O3DE can serve as a scalable, cloud-ready simulator capable of powering complex multi-robot systems.

Key enhancements:

  • O3DE-ROS 2 Integration Layer: Implemented and refined ROS 2 communication bindings for O3DE, enabling real-time exchange of transforms, sensor data, navigation messages, and robot state updates.
  • GPU-Accelerated LiDAR Simulation: Integrated the Robotec GPU Lidar (RGL) Library to deliver high-fidelity, multi-beam LiDAR scans with minimal performance overhead – crucial for multi-robot demos.
  • Realistic Robotics Environment: Developed a warehouse-style scene featuring navigable layouts, objects, physics, and lighting optimized for robotics perception and mapping.
  • Multi-Robot Setup: Implemented multiple differential-drive robots with onboard sensors (LiDAR, camera, IMU), demonstrating coordinated navigation and ROS 2-based autonomy.
  • Cloud-Scalable Architecture: Designed the simulation to run efficiently on AWS compute instances, showcasing O3DE’s potential for distributed or large-scale simulation workloads.
  • Open-Source Demonstration: Published the project as a public reference demo (ROSCon 2023) to support the broader robotics community adopting O3DE + ROS 2.

Results

The AWS + Robotec.ai collaboration successfully demonstrated a highly scalable robotics simulation.

Key outcomes:

  • Modern tech stack with huge performance and scalability advantage at a fraction of infrastructure costs.
  • Multi-robot simulations suitable for cloud-based workloads and CI/CD pipelines.
  • High performance GPU LiDAR and camera simulation powered by O3DE and RGL.
  • Seamless ROS 2 integration, enabling navigation, mapping, and autonomy testing out of the box.
  • An open, reusable reference implementation supporting developers adopting O3DE for robotics.
  • A successful showcase, demonstrating how AAA-grade graphics engines and robotics frameworks can converge.