YEREVAN, Armenia — The American University of Armenia (AUA) Zaven P. and Sonia Akian College of Science and Engineering is pleased to announce a new publication co-authored by Dr. Habet Madoyan, program chair of the Bachelor of Science in Data Science; faculty member Davit Ghazaryan; and student Gor Arzanyan (BSCS ’27), in SoftwareX, a biannual peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal.
The paper presents RLDroneSim, an open-source simulation platform for reinforcement learning-based research on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The paper introduces a practical framework that enables researchers to develop, train, and evaluate AI-based flight control methods in realistic simulation environments.
The study addresses a key challenge in the field: the lack of simulation tools that are easy to reuse and compatible with existing drone-control software. RLDroneSim brings drone control and simulation tools together, allowing researchers to test drone commands in a realistic virtual environment without using a real drone. It also works with popular reinforcement learning tools, making it easier to train and test AI systems.
The platform provides a Gymnasium-compatible interface and supports widely used reinforcement learning libraries, including Stable Baselines3. It also includes configurable training workflows, automated environment reset mechanisms, and parallel simulation capabilities, enabling researchers to conduct scalable, reproducible, and efficient experiments.
The paper demonstrates the platform through a reinforcement learning-based PID controller tuning workflow for UAVs and makes RLDroneSim openly available with documentation to encourage further research and collaboration.
Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.