# Integrated Robotic and Network Simulation Method
## 3 IRoNS Method
### Base Simulation--Planning  
Due to its impact in the entire process, we consider this step a critical point, consisting in preparing information to simplify simulation implementation and improve simulation reproducibility, a step also known as conceptual and communicative modelling [22].  
This type of modelling is usually simple and easy to use, but its complexity may grow quickly in the following three situations: (1) If there are several developers working in the same implementation; (2) when simulation is complex and involves several views; and (3) in the case of poor team knowledge on the simulation topics. For integrated robotics and communication simulations, all three cases may be true, requiring more details and explanations in the conceptual model. In practice, this impliesa large and detailed documentation process that, yet, can be too complex to be used as guide in implementation or too simple to help others understand the simulation topics.  
A common recommendation is to maintain conceptual modelling simple and define a communicative model that is more refined, with more detailed information. Therefore, the computational model is not the main concern in this part and the generalized idea of how simulation will work and its functionalities are the key points [31]. An extensive source of information of this modelling is presented in [32]. We opt to adapt and use the recommendations of a simpler conceptual modelling described in [25; 31], which uses diagrams, figures, conceptual maps and other visual forms to describe the simulation.  
On the other hand, communicative modelling focuses on documentation, in a textual form, being one of the most important aspects of the simulation, aiming at a better understanding of the simulation by others. For this modelling, we adopt the ODD protocol [23], modifying some of its terminology and adding particularities of the type of simulation we are addressing. The ODD protocol uses the following documentation topics:  
* **Purpose:** Consists of the same initial documentation already made within the IRoNS method, indicating the simulation main motivation and what to expect from it.
* **Entities, state variables, and scales:** Consists in defining what is relevant for the study in terms of algorithms, evaluation parameters, observation parameters, measurement units and, specifically in this context, robot and cooperation characteristics.
* **Process overview and scheduling:** Defines how algorithms are organized, what they do and in which order. In our context, it is especially important to define relationships between the network, topology control and the robots cooperative control.
* **Design concepts:** There are eleven design concepts in the ODD protocol [23] describing the application of an agent simulation. Using these concepts for robot simulation is straightforward if we consider the robot as a particular physical agent and the set of cooperative robots as a physical multi-agent simulation. All information regarding the simulation of robots, cooperative control and cooperation is documented here.
* **Initialization:** Describes the simulation initial conditions, initial values and the expected effects on the concrete simulation case.
* **Input data:** This topic is needed when using input data from external sources or another simulation software, only.
* **Submodels:** Description of each submodel used in the simulation. Here we include all the network and topology control aspects that were not described before. Any details about extra modules and the simulation environment must also be included here.