Evaluation of a Co-Simulation Framework for the Design and Implementation of Multi-AP Wi-Fi Handover in Mobile Robots

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) increasingly rely on wireless connectivity to interact with edge servers and distributed compute resources. To study such systems, we use a co-simulation framework (CoSIM) that integrates physics based robot models, ROS 2 applications, and wireless network emulation in containerized environments. The baseline CoSIM supported single–access point (AP) Wi-Fi but lacked realistic mobility and roaming. This thesis extends CoSIM with multi-AP Wi-Fi handover and evaluates its impact in a mobile-robot scenario. We first outline the system architecture (ROS 2 messaging, JSON/Protobuf interfaces, inter-container orchestration), then introduce changes to the wireless medium simulator: vectorized multi-AP data structures, per-AP stepping and scheduling, refined large-scale path-loss with deterministic and shadowing options, and roaming logic with hysteresis and minimum dwell time. These enhancements allow a robot to dynamically associate with the strongest AP while moving, producing realistic handover events. Experiments compare a single-AP baseline against a dual-AP roaming setup in a warehouse-like layout, analyzing network metrics (handover delay, packet loss, throughput) and robot outcomes (trajectory tracking during connectivity changes). The extended framework reproduces expected roaming behavior while remaining compatible with existing CoSIM topologies and coordinator message flows, providing a practical basis for mobility studies in robotics. This multi-AP extension narrows the gap between high-level co-simulation and practical mobile connectivity, and lays groundwork for future research on multi-robot mobility, richer wireless models, and joint compute-communication-control co-design.