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Changes since Last Release and To-Do List Developers: as you make substantial changes in the code (add features, fix bugs, etc.), add an item in the section on changes. When the next version is released, this list will be copied into the release notes. To-Do List Documentation An end-to-end tutorial: create new slice interface, write server, write client. (alex m) Update the 'coordinate systems' image. libOrcaIce Should components quit when there's no registry and Orca.RequireRegistry=1? Right now they seem to hang. Look into component thread. (alexm) What happens when the component assumes a config file name but it's not there? e.g. $ teleop (without teleop.cfg). This should be allowed for utilities like probe but components with required interfaces should say something intelligent (alexm). RegistryView fix stale display of components (alexm) laser2og: The ray-trace stuff in here is currently cut-n-pasted from hydroogmap... Changes in SVN since Last Release Project wide Build system Big cleanup of CMake scripts for generating interface code. cmake files updated for cmake 2.6 New interfaces New components New utilities New libraries OrcaSim2d (alex b) Library for simple 2D simulations OrcaVfh (alex b) moved out of lovalnav directory OrcaIfaceString (alex m) This library is autogenerated from Slice defenitions (.ice files). It contains string utilities for Slice data types (enums, structures, classes). Updated interfaces Image, OgPatch, OgMap, RangeScanner2d, LaserScanner2d, QGraphics2d, Hand, PointCloud. Using newly defined 'standard' sequences of builtin types (defined in orca.ice) Updated components LocalNav (alex b) Big overhaul and simpleification Updated utilities slice2string (alex m) utility for generating string functions from Slice definitions. Updated libraries OrcaIfaceImpl (alex b) Added QGraphics2dImpl Added PathFollower2dImpl OrcaIceGrid fixed bug which could lead to uncaught exception under certain conditions when setting observers. (alexm) OrcaIce subscribers to component's Status interface get current status on subscription (alex m) Removed IceGridMon utility because the standard IceGrid GUI is very good. Changes in Release 2.10.0 Project wide Build system GearBox distribution is now required to build Orca. Orca uses Gearbox cmake scripts. Default installation directories follow GearBox standard (/usr/local). Renamed all local cmake variables to low case. The names of all CMake macros defined in Orca now start with "ORCA_" (alex m) Documentation Cleaned up and shortened the programming style guide. New utilities SnapshotLogger (alex b) Logs a small window (in time) of information when triggered. Updated interfaces PolarFeature2d (alex b) Added 'description' which includes the sensor offset. Updated components Gps Big clean up of the component. All driver functionality moved to Hydro. (alex m) PathPlanner Big cleanup of the component. Conversion from output of algorithm to orca path improved. (alex b) LaserFeatureExtractor Moved all the algorithms out to hydro (alex b) Made an important functional change: the component no longer does coordinate transformations. The interface now reports the sensor's offset, leaving it up to clients to do the transformation. This gives more flexibility, eg clients can transform the uncertainty correctly if they want to. (alex b) General overhaul and cleanup (alex b) Updated utilities Orcaview2d (tobi) Elements in config file can have an arbitrary string, no consecutive numbers required any more Grid element does not need to be configured any more Fixed bug: multiple deletions of QObjects in component.cpp General cleanup Updated libraries libOrcaIce Component API: removed now rarely used shortcuts to the contents of Context. Much stricter parsing of properties. No changes in API. Throwing exceptions whenever parsing fails (to int and double, vectors of ints and doubles). Fails when characters trail a numeric value. This applies to '.' meaning that parsing fails when a double is given in place of an int. Comments are allowed to trail values. (alex m) libOrcaProbeFactory Added button probe (alex b) libOrcaIceGrid New function IceGridSession::setObservers() allows delayed observer initialization. (alexm) Removed Imu component InsGps component (the old version, a complete re-write is currently in the repository). Changes in Release 2.9.0 Project wide Build system Updated style of checking module dependencies, for both components and libraries. Better cmake feedback when a component cannot be built. (alex m) Component containers (Application and Service) are now auto-generated by the build-system (using WRAP_COMPONENT_INTO_APP and WRAP_COMPONENT_INTO_SERVICE cmake macros). This means that for "standard" component there's no need to write main.cpp and service.h/cpp by hand. (alex m) Component itself can also be autogenerated (using WRAP_MAINTHREAD_INTO_APP and WRAP_MAINTHREAD_INTO_SERVICE cmake macros). For "standard" components, this eliminates the need for writing component.h/cpp by hand (alex m) Added modular input of license information (with GLOBAL_ADD_LICENSE macro). (alex m) Source Global change to the updated API's of orcaice::Context. New interfaces Properties (alex b) Hands out a set of Properties, for use in implementing a centralised properties database. New components PropertyServer (alex b) Implements orca::Properties interface Updated interfaces VehicleDescription (alex b) For Differential Drive robots, changed description of allowable control region. Rather than defining maxTurnrate as a linear function of speed, put a limit on the maximum lateral acceleration due to centripital force. This gives a hyperbolic relation between speed and turnrate. Better because it has a physical justification. Gps (alex b) Deleted deprecated 'offset' from GpsDescription. Updated components pathplanner (alex b) brought closer to modern standards, implemented status. implemented handling of simultaneous arrival of tasks properly segwayrmp (alex b) use updated vehicle description. Limit unfeasible commands in netthread, issue a warning to status when commands are limited. lasermon brought closer to modern standards (alex m) ognode (alex b) Allowed beginning with a prior map. Updated utilities Probe added support for Pinger interface (alex m) added support for VelocityControl2d interface (alex b) IceGridMon Updated implementation to modern standards. (alex m) Updated libraries libOrcaIce Component standard interfaces can now be configured from the config file in addition to the programatic method used before. (alex m) Context now returns references to Tracer and Status instead of pointers (alex m) added conversion function to hydroutil::Context better feedback on exceptions caught during component startup. no need to catch them in Component::start() just to print them out. Removed deprecated orcaice::PtrProxy (replaced with PtrStore) (alex b) Cleaned up reading of properties in orcaice::Application and orcaice::Service (alex b) Added ability to read configuration parameters from network (alex b) Imported toString() and getProperty*() functions related to Orca types defined in orca.h and those included from it. These came form libOrcaObjects. The rest of utility functions related to other Orca the objects stayed in libOrcaObjects and libOrcaIce no longer depens on it. libOrcaObjects Got its own namespace -- orcaobj. Exported toString() and getProperty*() functions related to Orca types defined in orca.h and those included from it. These came form libOrcaObjects. The rest of utility functions related to other Orca objects stayed in libOrcaObjects and libOrcaIce no longer depens on it. libOrcaIceGrid Rearranged all code by merging two independent implementations of IceGrid admin sessions into two classes. (alex m) Turned Off Image components and libraries are turned off by default because they do not properly check their dependencies and fail to compile under some circumstances. Hopefully they'll be fixed soon. Removed Imu component. It was never implemented properly and it's component structure was hopelessly obsolete. Changes in Release 2.8.0 Project wide java build (Jayen Ashar) Dealt with the fact that gcj only handles '-classpath', not '-cp'. documentation orca documentation now links to hydro's (alex m) new tutorial: line-by-line step-through of Brick source code. (alex m) new tutorial: detailed comments on running Brick. (alex m) build system looking for Ice installation, first looks in generic dirs: /opt/Ice; /opt/Ice-3; /opt/Ice-3.2 New interfaces Button (alex b) A simple thing you can press remotely, with no feedback. New libraries libOrcaNavUtil (alex b) Library for conversion between Orca types and HydroNavUtil types. Updated interfaces PolarFeature2d (alex b) PolarFeature2dData was un-necessarily a class. It's now a struct. FeatureMap2d (alex b) FeatureMap2d was un-necessarily a class. It's now a struct. Updated components Laser2d fixed bug made dynamically loaded drivers not to load configuration parameters (alex m) converted source code to modern style (alex m) LogPlayer Implemented interactive interface which allows pausing/fast-forwarding/rewinding/etc during log playing (alex b) Robot2d/SegwayRMP simplified and improved common code (alex b) Robot2d moved hardware drivers to Hydro (alex m) converted source code to modern style (alex m) SegwayRMP big overhaul of SegwayRmpDriver (alex b) Added interpretation of pct remaining for CU batteries (alex b) moved hardware drivers to Hydro (alex m) converted source code to modern style (alex m) GoalPlanner Added functionality to re-plan when something goes awry (alex b) Teleop moved hardware drivers to Hydro (alex m) PathPlanner Got rid of that hazardMap malarky -- now only accepts an OG map (alex b) FaithLocaliser, Gps, LaserFeatureExtractor converted source code to modern style (alex m) Updated utilities Pinger/Replier These utilities for measuring communication latencies are working again (alex m) IcePing Added command line shortcut '-s' for pinging IceStorm (specifically its TopicManager interface). (alex m) Fixed seg fault with '-f' option when file name is not specified. (alex m) Updated documentation. (alex m) Updated libraries libOrcaIce fixed bug which made Tracer and Status not to load configuration parameters (alex m) all multi-try functions now accept an optional parameter specifying the name of the subsystem. if this name is provided, Status heartbeat is sent at every attempt. (alex m) libOrcaLog Changes for interactive log-playing (alex b) libOrcaLocalNav Moved Velocity/Acceleration out into hydronavutil (alex b) libOrcaIfaceImpl Fixed bug where interfaces were not removed from the adapter correctly (alex b) Added NotifyingConsumer types (alex b) libOrcaDef changed 'orca2' to 'orca' in executable path in generated .xml files (alex m, thanks duncan m.) libOrcaOgMap Moved the guts out to Hydro. This is now just a set of conversion functions (alex b). libOrcaPathPlan Moved the guts out to Hydro. This is now just a set of conversion functions (alex b). libOrcaMapLoad Moved out to Hydro (alex b). Removed mgaconversion libHydroGeom2d libHydroGpsUtil libHydroNovatelUtil libHydroOgMap libHydroPathPlan libHydroMapLoad Moved to Hydro (alexb, alexm) Changes in Release 2.7.0 Project wide Moved from CVS to SVN version control system. Created a separate distribution called Hydro for communication-independent code (e.g. hardware drivers and algorithm implementations). Hydro only requires CMake to compile (but is more useful with libIceUtil). Orca requires CMake, Hydro, and Ice. Added a new keyword for writing .def files. A single line which starts with 'ExternalConfig.*' replaces 2 lines: 'Config.*' + 'Config.*.External=1'. The old syntax is deprecated but will be supported for a while. All .def files in Orca have been updated. (alexm) Documentation New tutorial: "Closed-loop control of a robot simulated with Player/Stage" Build system only one XML file is now generated from .def file instead of two before (it contains the xml template) New interfaces New components New utilities New libraries libOrcaIceXml (alex m.) Tools useful for XML parsing. Current contents were extracted from IceGrid code. New examples Brick (alex m) moved from tests and cleaned up. It's very simple and makes a good first example. ReactiveWalker (alex m) resurrected from the sandbox. It's a robot controller similar to Player's randomwalk. Updated interfaces Gps (alex b) removed GpsMapGrid and GpsTime interfaces. Updated components SegwayRmpUsb Added correction for the curve which the Segway applies to the commanded turn rate. This is a big improvement, but it's still not 100% right (it's not clear if the MAX_TURNRATE_SCALE is applied internally as well). (alexb, alexm) Laser2d Moved all 4 drivers to hydro. Updated utilities Orcaview2d big overhaul of how paths are stored internally and to files (Tobi) olympic marker is configurable (Tobi) overhaul of paint utils: independence of transformation matrices (Tobi) Updated libraries libOrcaWifi (Tobi) removed dependence on orca enums before moving to hydro libOrcaIce split some of the contents into a new libOrcaIceUtil library. This is done in preparation for decoupling of Ice-dependent components and libs from Ice-independent drivers and algorithm implementations. libOrcaIce depends on libOrcaIceUtil. (alex m.) added function isInterfaceReachable() (alex m.) all multi-try connection functions now have an optional retryNumber parameter. default is -1, i.e. infinite -- same as before. therefore, no changes in existing code are needed. (alex m) renamed function getProvidedTopic() into getProvidedTopicWithTag() and added getProvidedTopicWitString(). These were mostly used internally by libOrcaIce and other utilities. (alex m) libOrcaMisc moved Activator to libOrcaIce libOrcaDef Added new keyword 'ExternalConfig' (see Project Wide changes above). Fixed bugs in tests. (alexm) libOrcaObjects moved general string functions toStringSeq() and toString(vector<string>) to libOrcaIceUtil moved math defenitions to libOrcaIceUtil libOrcaIceGrid added a new session manager with can control the IceGrid registry through its Admin interface. (alex b) libOrcaDynamicLoad split up include file into parts for more modular inclusions. added explicit dependence on libdl (which before was included somehow through libIce). added tests which can also server as examples. (alex m) libOrcaIfaceImpl the two multi-try subscribe functions now have an optional retryNumber parameter. default is -1, i.e. infinite -- same as before. therefore, no changes in existing code are needed. (alex m) Added constructors that don't rely on a tag but rather take the interface name directly as a string (alex b) libOrcaLog/libOrcaLogFactory Huge overhaul of how logging/replaying is done. Note: This is solely an implementation change: log file formats remain the same (and old logs will still play) (alex b) Removed OrcaSmc utility (alex m) Using a much more advanced derivative of the same original compiler maintained at http://smc.sourceforge.net Changes in Release 2.6.0 Project wide Build system Modularized cmake scripts which contain dependencies and build preferences. This will allow reduce the number of unintended dependencies. Added experimental support for Python. (ben u.) Stopped using convenience libraries because they were problematic on 64bit systems. (alex m) Fixed CMake bug with ORCA_MOTHERSHIP, it was unusalbe in satellite projects. (thanks John Yamokoski) Added project-wide access to Orca installation directory by adding -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX (Tobi) New interfaces Pinger (alex b) Interface for requesting that a host be 'ping'ed. New components ImageServer fixed bug in figuring out dependencies: opencv installed but low-level libs are not. (alex m) PingServer Simple component which will execute 'ping' and report the results when asked over a slice interface. (alex b) New utilities Wall (alex m) Simulates Orca interfaces. Use it during component development and debugging to easily create 'fake' implementations of standard interfaces. Then plug your component into 'the wall'. New libraries libBros1 (alex m) C++ implementation of the proposed BROS-I standard. libOrcaBros1 (alex m) utility library to convert between BROS-I data structures defined in Slice (libOrcaInterfaces.so) and in C++ (libBros1.so). libOrcaWall and libOrcaWallFactory (alex m) Dynamically loadable implementation of the interface simulators used by the Wall utility. libOrcaPing (alex b) C++ Wrapper for the 'oping' library: a C library for executing the 'ping' command. libOrcaLockFile (alex b) Pulled code for creating lockfiles (for ensuring unique access to resources) out of libOrcaSerial and into separate lib, to allow use elsewhere. New examples PureIcePython (ben u.) Example of Orca component in Python. Updated interfaces Localise2d added getGeometry() which describes the geometry of the localised robot (Tobi) Updated components LaserFeatureExtractor (alex b) Improved Corner and ForegroundPoint detectors. Laser2d (alex b) Added SickAcfr driver library. Gps2Localise2d, FaithLocaliser, SimLocaliser get vehicle description from odometry interface and relay to localise2d (Tobi) OgNode/Laser2Og (alex b) big cleanup. fixed problem where skinny objects are missed. robot2d/segwayrmp (alex b) factored out common code into orcarobotdriverutil library. cleaned up robot2d, so exceptions are handled better. fixed threading problem in robot2d which could cause the Ice thread to hang. gps (Duncan Mercer) Added support for Garmin GPS units. General cleanup, which broke the old Ashtech driver. Updated utilities Orcaview2d LocaliseElement gets VehicleGeometryDescription and draws robot properly (Tobi) Lookup table (hazardmap) is installed and accessed from there (Tobi) Hazard map by itself is displayed properly (Tobi) WifiElement: Windows-like interpretation of signal strength is displayed (Tobi) Updated libraries libOrcaWifi bug fixes for signal strength (Tobi) status reports warnings when signal strength is low (Tobi) libOrcaNavUtil added convenience functions for transformations between poses (alex b) libOrcaIce added getPropertyAsIntVector/WithDefault() and getPropertyAsDoubleVector/WithDefault() which loads ints and doubles respectively separated by spaces from a cfg file into vector<int> and vector<double> resp. (ben u) added multi-try versions of getInterfaceIdWithString() and getInterfaceIdWithTag() functions. (alex m) changed API for Thread class. isActive() is depricated, isStopping() should be used instead. added isStarted(). The implicit state machine is explained in the documentation. (alex m) added a specialized thread class SafeThread which defines a new entry point called walk() and catches all possible exceptions around it. (alex m) Buffer and PtrBuffer classes now require explicit configuration (depth and buffer type). The latest defaults (infinite depth, circular type) were used at the point of instantiation. (alex m) Renamed Proxy storage class into (hopefully less confusing) Store. Proxy still exists but is depricated. libOrcaImage added support for Image interface in image conversion functions. (alex m) libOrcaObjects added functions to parse a sequence of int's and double's into an std::vector. (ben u) added support for Image interface. (alex m) mathdefs.h: changed CHECK_LIMITS to CLIP_TO_LIMITS. (alex b) libOrcaProbeFactory added support for Image interface. (alex m) libOrcaQGui2d PixMap gets repainted if its offset has changed (ben u) libOrcaLogFactory added replayer for DriveBicycle interface (ben u) fixed bug which led to unbounded growth in internal buffer sizes in all replayers (michael m) libOrcaOgMap (alex b) use doubles instead of floats to represent world coords map orcaogmap::OgMap a specific instance of the more general orcaogmap::GenericMap libOrcaIfaceImpl added fully-featured Consumer implementations which can subscribe themselves, including multi-try versions. Name cleaning up so that Impl classes of consumer and 'provider' interfaces have similar names and API. (alex m) Removed Changes in Release 2.5.0 Project wide Build system: changed the order of places where we search for Ice. The new order is this: specified by env. var. $ICE_HOME Debian package install point: /usr/ standard Ice istall point: /opt/Ice-[VERSION] possible install point when built from source: /usr/local This change simplifies switching between source and package Ice installs. Common situations with outcomes: source install w/env.var -> source install package -> package package + source install w/env.var -> source install package + source install w/out env.var -> package Build system fixed bug which prevented distrib. compilation in external projects (alexm) Documentation added tutorial with simple robot teleop in stage added tutorial on logging interface data in text format New interfaces Image (alexm) Represents an image source. It is similar to PixMap and Camera. Unlike the other two its defines its main data object as a class. New components New utilities New libraries libOrcaColourText (alexb, alexm) Simple text colours on the Linux terminal, using escape-codes. New examples Orca2Yarp (alex m.) A simple component which connects to both Orca and Yarp systems. Player2Orca (alex m.) A simple component which connects to both Player and Orca systems. Updated interfaces DriveBicycle (alex m.) provides information on the current state of the actuators (speed and steer angle). Gps (michael m.) added Novatel-specific position types. Localise2d (tobi) got rid of getDataAtTime which was not implemented Updated components FaithLocaliser (tobi) complete overhaul got rid off storing history and interpolation Wifi (tobi) reading using ioctl only attempted once bug fix with open sockets GoalPlanner (tobi) new config parameter: velocity to reach first waypoint figures out the timing to the first wp and changes subsequent times accordingly localisation data is obtained using getData rather than through Icestorm PathPlanner (tobi) policy for adding timing to waypoints changed: distances are taken into account Imu (ben u.) Added configurable offset between the IMU sensor and the platform. SegwayRmp Internal source cleanup. Not using orca:: structures internally. (alex m) Added Peak CAN interface (Duncan Mercer) Robot2d Internal source cleanup. Not using orca:: structures internally. (alex m) LocalNav Catch exceptions properly on driver initialisation. (alex b) Laser2d (alex b) Simplified interaction between component code and driver code. Allowed dynamically-loaded drivers from libraries outside the orca2 distribution. remove SickAcfr (QNX implementation no longer compatible with OrcaSerial) Updated utilities Name change: sysmon -> systemtracermon (alex b) OrcaView2d (tobi) olympic marker displays properly more shortcuts for path input added improved display of table in main window Probe: added support for wifi interface (alex b) Updated libraries libOrcaObjects Bugfixes to 3D transformations in orcaobj/frameutils.cpp (Will Uther) added toIntVector() and toDoubleVector() which parses a string of ints/doubles separated by spaces. (ben u) libOrcaDef fixed bug in XML generation: 'external' tag for config was ignored (alexm) libOrcaIce added two config properties with the following defaults: Orca.Warn.DefaultProperty=1 and Orca.Warn.FactoryProperty=0. Streamlined and standardized progress reports during component initialization. (alexm) fixed bugs handling negative times in conversions between orca::Time, doubles, durations, and strings. Added more tests. (alexm) Worked around an Ice3.2 bug which occasionally resulted in a deadlock on adapter activation. (alex b) added functions for looped multi-try connections and interface setup. these wrap the existing "single-shot" function e.g. activate(), connectToInterfaceWithTag(), but catch the exceptions which indicate conditions which may change (service unavailability) and try again. (alexm) version info printed out on startup (or with --version) now includes project version, which could be useful for non-orca projects. (alexm) getRequiredTags() and getProvidedTags() now takes an optional string parameter to filter the list of tags by initial text. (alexm) libOrcaSerial (alex b, duncan) Big overhaul: The interface is substantially different, hopefully more sane and consistent and easier to understand. Plus error checking and reporting is improved. Plus lockfiles have been implemented, to prevent concurrent access to a device from multiple instances of orcaserial. libOrcaIfaceImpl (for some interfaces) added multi-try function for interface initialization. (alex m) Removed Changes in Release 2.4.0 Project wide documentation added a high-level guide on how to start coding (alex m) New interfaces New components gps2localise2d (alexb) Imu component has been moved from sandbox to the components directory (ben u) New utilities New libraries libOrcaColourText (alexb) Simple text colours on the Linux terminal, using escape-codes. Updated interfaces PathPlanner Added an error string (tobi) Gps Split into separate interfaces (alex b) Power Added a new variable: ChargingState (tobi) Localise2d Removed offset (alex b) Updated components Gps Big overhaul (tobi) OrcaView2d: Redesign of factories and how elements are configured (tobi) Fixed bug with uninitialised platform location (alex b) Fixed bug with waypoint heading tolerances being normalised (alex b) Changed range of entries for pathfollower parameters (tobi) Added feature: connect to all interfaces on given component (tobi) PathPlanner: Big re-organisation (alex b, tobi) GoalPlanner: Big overhaul (alex b) Updated utilities orcaifaceimpl servers catch AlreadySubscribed exceptions but don't pass them on to clients (tobi) enables clients to try to resubscribe as often as they want Probe: Added PathFollower2d probe (alex b) orcagpsutil big cleanup (alex b) Updated libraries orcnavutil: Changed order of parameters in covpredict (alex b) orcapathplan: Allowed for non-uniform costs in skeleton path planning (alex b) libOrcaIce direct connections work again (alex m) Removed Changes in Release 2.3.0 Project wide Compile Options Under Linux, build with debugging symbols by default (alex b) Compatible with Ice v3.1 and Ice v3.2, but warnings are spewed out for Ice v3.2 (alex b) New interfaces Replay Remote interface to a log playing process. New components New utilities mgaconversion (Tobi) contains tools to convert from latitude/longitude to MGA sysmon (alex b) A tool to monitor info/warn/error messages for an entire system. New libraries orcagpsutil (Tobi) split up orcanavutil added nmea classes which were with the gps component before Updated interfaces Tracer Has functions to subscribe just for that componnent, or to all info/warn/errors on a platform. The orcaice::Tracer implementation is updated accordingly (alex b) Status small changes to improve system monitoring. OrcaIce has been updated accordingly. (alex b) Position2d/3d and Platform2d Removed these obsolete interfaces (alex b) Updated components SegwayRmp Added hardware speed limits, set in hardware driver (alex m/b) the RmpUsb driver now corrects for segway's built in speed scaling factor, so that segway will actually drive at the speed specified. (alex m/b) Overhaul of component, error reporting greatly improved (alex b) Updated utilities Orcaview2d supports wifi now (Tobi) Probe fixed bug with wrong max number of options (alex m) added support for Gps, Localise2d interfaces (alex b/m) Logger optinally, tolerates unsupported interface types and formats. also allows disabling replay. (alex m) LogPlayer CameraReplayer: fixed mem leak and bug to do with skipping images (Alen Alempijevic) IceGridMon Compatible with Ice v3.2 (alex b) Updated libraries OrcaIce fixed bug with Tracer not calculating total verbosity (alex m) added ComponentThread to handle transient failures to register Home interface and manage Status (alex b) OrcaNavUtil (Tobi) added MGA/latitude/longitude functions OrcaLogFactory (Tobi) fixed GPS replay bug added wifi for replaying OrcaIfaceImpl Interface lifetimes are now independent of the adapter. (This involved an API change). (alex b) Removed drunkrobot and robot2dtester moved to sandbox as unmaintained, an no longer compile after removal of position2d (alexb) Changes in Release 2.2.0 Project wide Interfaces Data objects in Orca interfaces no longer have to derive from orca::OrcaObject class. Most existing interfaces now use struct's. The following interfaces still use classes RangeScanner2d, LaserScanner2d, FeatureMap2d. Build system Support for QNX Neutrino real time OS New CMake macro BUILD_COMPONENT_SOURCES to simplify building both stand-alone component and an IceBox service. Internally it builds a convenience library which cuts down compilation time in half. Defined new CMake variables to establish the local OS: OS_LINUX, OS_QNX, OS_WIN. Documentation Expanded docco on how to add interfaces and souce code to the project ( orca-robotics.sf.net/orca_doc_devguide.html ) Re-did latency tests on new hardware and using structures instead of classes ( orca-robotics.sf.net/orca_doc_performance.html ) Dependencies libOpenCV can now be installed into an arbitrary location (alex m) Global code changes changed all IceStorm subscriptions to 'twoway' to reduce risk of keeping subscriptions after consumers go down. New interfaces Tracer Remote access to component's traces, e.g. errors, warning, etc. Separated from the existing Status interface. DriveBicycle DriveDifferential Log Odometry2d and Odometry3d Replace Position2d and Position3d which are now obsolete. VelocityControl2d Replaces Platform2d which is now obsolete. VehicleDescription Describes physical geometry and dynamic constraints of vehicles (Alex B.) Wifi Access to wireless signal strength and other wireless network parameters (Tobi) PixMap Access to a pixmap representation of the world, e.g. background image (Tobi) New components TracerMon (alex m.) Connects to Tracer interface of a component and displays all trace statements. Wifi (Tobi) Component that provides wifi information PixMapLoader (Tobi) Loads and provides a pixmap New utilities IceGridMon (alex m.) Connects to the registry and installs itself as the Registry and Node Observer. Then all registry and node events are traced locally or re New libraries orcaifaceimpl Optional convenience library providing default implementations of some Orca interfaces (Alex B.) orcawifi Library for getting wireless information in Linux (Tobi) Updated interfaces Wifi, OgMap (Tobi) enums instead of const int for types PathFollower2d (Tobi) Added get and set methods for activation time and enabled-state. Platform2d Obsolete. Use VelocityControl2d or DriveBicycle in new code. Position2d Obsolete. Use Odometry2d in new code. Position3d Obsolete. Use Odometry3d in new code. Updated components FeatureMapLoader Added error tracing (alex m.) Robot2d and SegwayRmp Now using new interfaces Odometry2d and VelocityControl2d. (alex m.) Teleop (alex m.) Support for configurable display, input, and network drivers. Added support for VelocityControl2d and DriveBicycle interfaces. General source overhaul. Using orcaice::EventQueue's. added a 'secret' feature to send step inputs 10%,20%...100% of max speed with one key stroke. it's disabled by default. joystick driver applies a quadratic curve to the input LocalNav General cleanup, plus made to respect timings in paths. (Alex B.) Uses new interfaces Odometry2d and VelocityControl2d. (Tobi) Use vehicle details obtained using VehicleDescription (Alex B.) ImageServer Cleaned up code and documentation. Using standard interface implementation (alex m.) Gps FakeDriver can spit out configured coordinates, useful for debugging (Tobi) Updated utilities Probe (alex m.) now using orcaice::EventQueue for cross-thread communication. OrcaView2d (Tobi) Interaction with pathfollower2d interface more sophisticated: paths can be specified as missions with associcated waiting times and behaviours timing is displayed online by an "olympic marker" All interfaces on a given platform can be connected. Prohibit connecting the identical interface twice. Changed some guielements to be displayed in iconic view, ie independent on zoom configuration. Updated libraries libOrcaIce an overhaul of tracing and status facilities. (alex m.) added EventQueue class using events defined as Ice smart pointers. (alex m.) implementation of Home interface now returns dynamic information about component's interfaces. Works for automatically when using std connect utilities, an option exist for custom Home data manipulation. (alex m.) made 'component started' trace optional with Orca.PrintComponentStarted property. This is to be nice to nonstandard display drivers, e.g. those using ncurses. libOrcaLogFactory added support for Odometry2d/3d interfaces (alex m.) added support for Wifi interface (Tobi) added support for Imu interface (Tobi) libOrcaProbeFactory (alex m.) added support for Status and Tracer interfaces libOrcaDef (alex m.) removed Home object registration from XML descriptor. It's done programatically from libOrcaIce. fixed bug in xml template generation which caused 60sec delay in component shutdown from within IceGrid. libOrcaOgMapLoad (Tobi) renamed to libOrcaMapLoad added functionality to load pixmaps Changes in Release 2.1.1 Project wide Build system split utils directory into libs and utils. components are not affected. Documentation added graphical UML symbol to documentation pages of all components. added separate listing of libs and utils. fixed broken doxygen references. New components InsGps (Ben Upcroft) hardware component for Inertial navigation systems which include IMU and GPS units. It provides raw imu data, gps data, and position3d data. It is also planned that Localise3d interface will also be provided. At present, the Novatel Span INS system is supported. New utilities def2cfg, def2xml, def2xmltemplate, def2definverted, def2uml the first 4 are renamed from generatecfg, etc. and moved into a separate dir. new utility def2uml for creating images of UML symbols from component definition files. New libraries libOrcaDynamicLoad factored out the dynamic loading stuff into a separate library (Alex B.) libOrcaQUml (Alex M.) port of old libQorcaUml from QCanvas to QGraphicView libOrcaQt factored out commonly used Qt elements. Currently contains the Orca icon and aboutOrca() function. Updated interfaces PolarFeature2d Added two fields to all features: pFalsePositive and pTruePositive, to characterise feature detection reliability (Alex B.) Allowed different feature representations using inheritence (Alex B.) FeatureMap2d Added field to each feature: pExists. Quantifies the certainty that the feature is really there. (Alex B.) Allowed different feature representations using inheritence (Alex B.) OgMap interface added a user-defined type, useful to determine the type of certainty grid map, e.g. hazard, ogmap, motion etc. (Tobi) Updated components LogPlayer component (Alex M.) interface name is set properly on replay interfaces are initialized before waiting for user input to start repla execution dir of logplayer and the dir where logs are stored may be different custom begin and end time of replay are working again it's possible to step through data objects one at a time by settiing ReplayRate=0 LaserFeatureExtractor Huge Overhaul, plus added line features (Alex B.) PathPlanner fixed potential problem with skeleton (zeromap is now a map of ints) (Tobi) GoalPlanner throws remote exception if there are more than one localisation hypotheses (Tobi) Updated utilities Probe utility (Alex M.) using dynamically loaded factory libraries to allow use with satellite projects added a gui driver using Qt OrcaView2d now supports guielements with multiple interfaces, see e.g. ogmapscombined (Tobi) CleanRegistry (Alex M.) now works with the Home interfaces registered as well-known-objects Updated libraries libOrcaIce added basename() and dirname() similar to Unix equivalents (Alex M.) added ctest for string utilities (Alex M.) added pathDelimeter() function to sysutils (Alex M.) added toString and "reverse" functions for several BROS-I structures. added tests. (Alex M.) libOrcaQGui renamed from libOrcaGui Made the generic bits in libOrcaQGui unaware of any specific bits in libOrcaQGui2d (Alex B.) Added support for dynamically-loaded plug-in GuiElementFactories, to allow satelite projects to extend the GUI (Alex B.) Added support for line features (Alex B.) Added a fix for multiple-subscriptions and increased re-subscribe timeout (Alex B.) libOrcaCompModel improved exception handling when contacting the Registry (Alex M.) Changes in Release 2.1.0 Build system Solaris compatability (Christopher Brooks, Alex Brooks) Tested with Ice-3.1.1 CMake scripts are now installed and can be used by satellite projects without copying. (Alex M.) New interface: BinarySwitch (Alex M.) Represents a bank of hardware devices with binary states, e.g. lights. New interface: Cpu (Alex M.) Interface to info about the computer's CPU. Gps interface Now using orca::TimeOfDay and orca::Date structures for date/time. (Alex M.) RangeScanner2d interface: renamed from RangeScanner (Alex M.) removed operation for remote configuration setConfig() combined Config and Geometry into Description LaserScanner2d interface: renamed from Laser (Alex M.) Camera interface (Alex M.) removed operation for remote configuration setConfig() combined Config and Geometry into Description renamed enum parameters from all-caps to Orca standard notation New component: OrcaView3d (Ben Upcroft, Waleed Kadous, Alex Brooks) a 3-D visualisation component OrcaGui Library Broken into separate 2D, 3D, and general libraries New utility: Probe (Alex M.) a utility to browse and probe remote orca interfaces. OrcaIce library added docs for tracing functions and properties (Alex M.) component config file may now be specified with Ice.Config in addition to Orca.Config parameter. This is done for compatibility with IceGrid (Alex M.) renamed Orca.Tracer.DoTimestamp config paramter to Orca.Tracer.Timestamp, to be similar to Ice.Logger.Timestamp (Alex M.) added a new config parameter Orca.RequireRegistry to allow start up components without registry (Alex M.) in component config files, component name is no longer required. We use ComponentTag as default (converted to lower case). this is useful for some utilities which now don't need dummy config files. (Alex M.) added functions for standardized warning about missing properties, see warnMissingProperty(). OrcaObject library added functions for converting time to time-of-day and date. added ctest to test them. (Alex M.) OrcaDef library added orca version info to autogenerated files (.cfg and .xml) (Alex M.) Laser2d component: renamed from SickLaser Significant overhaul of internal structure to comply with changes in the interface and accomodate new drivers. (Alex M.) PlayerClient driver can now connect to multiple lasers on the same robot (Alex M.) now works with Hokuyo URG laser ImageServer and ImageViewer components Significant overhaul of internal structure to comply with changes in the interface. (Alex M.) Logger/LogPlayer components, and new libOrcaLog library major code clean-up to simplify addition of new interfaces (Alex M.) master file protocol has changed, logger writes metadata (Tobi) new feature: logplayer can do endless loops (Tobi) timestamp in log filenames is optional (Alex M.) added support for Power interface (Alex M.) Added support for plug-in loggers, via dynamic library loading (Alex B.) CameraLogger/Replayer added explicit support for "ice" and "jpeg" formats (Alex M.) added ctests to test that replayers can read logs. Orca for Java now works with Debian package of IceJ (Alex M.) Changes in Release 2.0.2 Build system User preference for installation directory are no longer overwritten. Orca will now build with Ice intalled as Debian package. Fixed Windows build error in 2.0.1. Imu interface accellerometer and gyro values are now stored using BROS-I structures. Alex Makarenko Position3d interface removed 'stalled' flag from Position3dData object. Alex Makarenko Robot2d component Split off Segway driver into a separate component. Alex Makarenko New component: SegwayRmp compared to Robot2d, provides Position3d interface. Alex Makarenko OrcaDef library: new feature generates IceGrid app descriptor (XML format) from .def file Alex Makarenko Documentation new tutorial on using IceGrid for application deployment Debian package for Ice is now the default install option. Alex Makarenko New interface: PointCloud Waleed Kadous ImageServer and ImageViewer now rely on the latest release verisons of opencv-0.9.9. builds of these individual components have been turned on by default. user specified resolutions are now supported for both firewire and usb cameras. Ben Upcroft Changes in Release 2.0.1 New components: ognode & laser2og For (cooperative) occupancy-grid mapping Matt Ridely, George Mathews, Alexei Makarenko, Tobias Kaupp New component: gps Matt Ridley New component: goalplanner Tobias Kaupp Component overhaul: pathplanner Alex Brooks and Tobias Kaupp Substantial improvements: orcaview Tobias Kaupp New interface: imu (inertial measurement unit) Ben Upcroft Support for integration with gazebo Ben Upcroft Support for logging in ascii and parsing from matlab Ben Upcroft, Tobias Kaupp Initial support for components as daemons Alex Brooks Fixed mem leak in SickLaser Alex Brooks Portability of common components (logger/logplayer/orcaview) to Orca-derived projects Tobias Kaupp

Webmaster: Tobias Kaupp (tobasco at users.sourceforge.net)

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