ProSim Is Now Free to Try: Realistic UAV Simulation with ROS 2 and UE5

In 2024, ProSim made its first appearance and opened a convenient path for Windows developers to run UAV simulation. In 2025, we decided to start again from the foundation by migrating the entire technology stack toward the front line of modern robotics development.

Today, we officially release the ROS 2 native version of ProSim. It is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, deeply integrates ROS 2 Humble, and uses Unreal Engine 5.2 as its rendering core. This is not a simple version upgrade. It is a full reconstruction of the simulation architecture, developer experience, and visual realism.

Three Core Upgrades

System Foundation

We have migrated the underlying environment to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, one of the most stable Linux releases with a long support lifecycle.

WSL2 users can also upgrade smoothly. A one-click script configures Windows + WSL2 Ubuntu 22.04, keeping the workflow Windows-friendly while providing an authentic Ubuntu development experience. This provides a solid foundation for integrating ROS 2 Humble and the latest PX4 Autopilot.

Communication Framework

ProSim has moved away from the “translation layer” of ROS 1 bridge-based communication and completed native ROS 2 Humble adaptation.

• Fully native architecture: simulation nodes, control interfaces, and sensor topics are all implemented through ROS 2 DDS.
• Lower communication latency: multi-UAV communication latency is reduced by more than 50%.
• Future-ready: the system supports ROS 2 component lifecycles, parameter services, and QoS policies, paving the way for swarm collaboration and real-time tasks.

Visual Engine

We upgraded from UE4.27 to UE5.2, pushing UAV simulation realism toward a physically grounded level.

• Lumen dynamic global illumination: real-time light bounce, indoor and outdoor lighting changes, and detailed shadows can improve simulation confidence for visual SLAM and object-detection algorithms.
• Nanite virtualized geometry: large real-world 3D models with hundreds of millions of polygons can be imported directly, enabling smooth city-scale and forest-scale scenes for obstacle-avoidance training.

Basic Control Functions

This upgrade focuses on the low-level control interfaces most frequently used by developers. Four basic control modes are now open and standardized as ROS 2 Topic/Service interfaces.

Developer Experience

From environment setup to first flight, the target workflow is about 30 minutes.

We know that complex environment configuration is one of the biggest obstacles to simulation adoption. In this release, ProSim provides a one-click deployment solution for Windows 11 + WSL2 Ubuntu 22.04.

The one-click script automatically configures the WSL2 distribution as Ubuntu 22.04 and completes the full environment deployment. The simulation front end runs on Windows through UE5.2, while PX4 and ROS 2 nodes run in WSL2, providing much higher data throughput than the older version.

Resources

Follow AMOVLAB and contact us to obtain the ProSim installation package and related materials. You can also join the ProSim learning group for updates and technical discussion.