This work presents a new robotics simulation environment built upon Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) for agricultural image data generation. The simulation utilizes the state-of-the-art real-time rendering engine to provide realistic plant images which are often used in agricultural applications. This study showcases the rendering accuracy of UE5 in comparison to existing tools and assesses its positional accuracy when integrated with Robot Operating Systems (ROS). The results indicate that UE5 achieves an impressive average distance error of 0.021mm when compared to predetermined setpoints in a multi-robot setup involving two UR10 arms.

For years, the 3D software development tool Unreal Engine has powered some of the biggest video games on the market--from Fortnite to Valorant--as well as television shows like The Mandalorian and even Porsche engineering. On Tuesday, Epic Games showed off the public release of Unreal Engine 5, the engine's first major update in 8 years. The company promises that the new updates to Unreal Engine 5 will make it the bedrock for the next generation of Web 3 developments--from metaverse experiences to movies, and of course, video games. Unreal Engine is the second-most widely used video game engine, trailing only Unity, and is known for its depth of features and visual quality. Its release opens the door for Disney to create a live Mandalorian video game that looks nearly as real as the show does, for example, says Kim Libreri, the CTO at Epic Games.