This paper presents a prototyping framework for distributed control of multi-robot systems, aimed at bridging theory and practical testing of distributed optimization algorithms. Using the Single Program, Multiple Data (SPMD) paradigm, the framework emulates distributed control on a single computer, with each core running the same algorithm using local states and neighbour-to-neighbour communication. We demonstrate the framework on a four-quadrotor position-swapping task using a non-cooperative game-theoretic distributed algorithm. Computational time and trajectory data are compared across the supported dynamics levels: a point-mass model, a high-fidelity quadrotor model, and an experimental hardware testbed using Crazyflie quadcopters. The results show that the framework provides a low-cost and accessible approach for validating distributed algorithms.
@article{arxiv.2605.15049,
title = {A Prototyping Framework for Distributed Control of Multi-Robot Systems},
author = {Junaid Ahmed Memon and Allan Andre Do Nascimento and Kostas Margellos and Antonis Papachristodoulou},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.15049},
year = {2026}
}