Wishlist

3D user-interface (open)
3D-Mapping (open
Joint Rescue Forces list of tasks
small tasks
Reconnect when in range
Use status message to select view.

Started Labbook 2014.

November 18, 2013

A group used the all-terrain mini-robot EyeDrive inside USARSim (UT4). Should ask for the code.

October 23, 2013

Maybe an idea to extend the LCM study; try the Ach protocol, downloadable from golems.org.
Read the Ach Technical Report. Ach uses a circular buffer of shared memory, which allows to read the latest update (and a few older copies in the circular buffer). It runs on a single processor, in 2011 it was not coupled with a suitable network transport such as SCTP or RDS.

September 13, 2013

sudo apt-get install xutils-dev also installed makedepend. Did a make clean, corrected the INC_DIR for cnl. Solved a missing link in ipt. Yet, I couldn't find any good target for the missing x86_64_init.h in ithread-directory. Found the instruction in README-COMPILE-5.0 that the file src/make/make.include should be edited (to reflect the MissionLab home directory).
Found out that MissionLab is already at version 7. Could find the improvements of each version back to version 4.
Downloaded version 7. Yet, also this distribution fails on the missing link in Cthreads.
Downloaded Cthreads directly from GaTech (version from Sept 2002). That explains why it couldn't be compiled on a 64-bits system.
Instead installed MissionLab-Carmen project, which replaced the troublesome Cthreads and IPT for pthreads and IPC). Tested the demo in /usr/demos/grousal_demos/missionlab and it worked. Also the demo in directory carmen and missionlab_carmen worked.
The source code is also installed (directly in /usr/src, arggh). Didn't tried to compile it yet. There is a directory for IPT, not for Cthreads.

September 12, 2013

Should try the MAST-village demo, based on UT2004.
Downloaded USARSim-MAST-Files-v1.2.zip, unpacked it (no warnings about overwriting, except for USARBot.ini (MAST version 30% smaller) and USARMisPkg.ini (MAST version 50% smaller) and made it (two warnings about RangeScanner.ScanInterval obscuring the base class RangeSensor.ScanInterval).
Their package contains the DragonflyRobot and a SICKLMSMini. The Textures directory not only contains MAST_Textures, but also rapdwntex.utx, which seems to be part of DM-Blackhawk, which is part of the distribution.
Started UT2004\Startup-Scripts\MAST-village.bat and got a nice middle-east village with power lines which will make flying difficult:
.
Made a Startup-Scripts\DM-Blackhawk.bat (which only starts from UT2004\System). I like MAST-village better (with the surrounding hills), although the overflying helicopter and the antennas on the roofs are nice:
.
Downloaded MissionLab-MAST-v1.16.tgz on nb-ros. Did a configure in packages/MissionLab-MAST-v1.16/src and said yes to all questions (OpenGL (mlab), Mobility (HServer), OpenCV (HServer), Gazebo (HServer)). Got a warning about csh being not installed, although the configuration said it was successful.
Make all failed, so did a sudo apt-get install csh. Still an error in cnl/makefile (put a space between makedepend). Did a make clean and a configure with a no to all questions (default answer). Now configure creates many depends. Machine hangs halfway the configure?! Try a restart. Script was in a loop entering and leaving the cnl directory, so I removed the space again. Configure now fails on missing imake when performing a configure ipt/src. Couldn't find a package for ubuntu. Solved by sudo apt-get install xutils-dev. Still, an error in communications/ipt/unixcommunicator.cc, which expects libc.h in its local directory. Changed the INC_DIR from .. to ../../../include. Next failure is in Cthreads/ithreads.
In their Virtual Manifacturing 2012 paper, Jacobs is already using ROS nodes to connect to USARSim.

June 20, 2013

Added both Envy material packages. Now only complaints about ManufacturingPlant, OfficeMeshes and AirRobot.

June 13, 2013

Installed UDK Feb 2013, to test the modifications in MultiView and Canvas. The Editor (no USARSim mod yet) starts up without any problems in 64bit - DX9 mode.

May 23, 2013

Updated ~/ROS/packages/usarsimros-code with command git pull. Looked into usarsim_joint_gui. The build.gradle is a mavin-plugin for eclipse, which gives some clues about dependencies. Tried a direct compile by command javac -cp `pwd` ActuatorControl.java, but package org.ros.node.topic could not be found.
Started eclipse (version 3.7.2), but could not find how to include a maven-plugin (project has been renamed several times).

May 16, 2013

Trying to make drcsim-groovy by installing from source. Modified the instructions slightly, first the gazebo dependencies:
sudo apt-get install -y cmake debhelper libfreeimage-dev libprotoc-dev \ libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler freeglut3-dev \ libcurl4-openssl-dev libtinyxml-dev libtar-dev \ libtbb-dev libogre-dev libxml2-dev pkg-config \ libqt4-dev ros-groovy-urdfdom ros-groovy-console-bridge libltdl-dev libboost-thread-dev libboost-signals-dev \ libboost-system-dev libboost-filesystem-dev \ libboost-program-options-dev libboost-regex-dev \ libboost-iostreams-dev robot-player-dev libcegui-mk2-dev \ libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev libswscale-dev libbullet-dev
Next step: installing osrf-common dependencies:
sudo apt-get install -y cmake debhelper ros-groovy-ros ros-groovy-ros-comm
Next step: sandia-hand dependencies:
sudo apt-get install -y cmake debhelper ros-groovy-xacro ros-groovy-ros libboost-dev ros-groovy-image-common ros-groovy-ros-comm ros-groovy-common-msgs avr-libc gcc-avr libqt4-dev
Last step: drcsim's dependencies:
sudo apt-get install -y cmake debhelper ros-groovy-pr2-mechanism ros-groovy-std-msgs ros-groovy-common-msgs ros-groovy-image-common ros-groovy-geometry ros-groovy-pr2-controllers ros-groovy-geometry-experimental ros-groovy-robot-model-visualization ros-groovy-image-pipeline ros-groovy-image-transport-plugins
First test if this already works, because the ros-groovy-msgs are now installed. Started websocket and gazebo again. The html-script gives no longer a warning, but also doesn't show any information. Websocket still gives the error:
subscribe: Unable to load the manifest for package atlas_msgs. Caused by: atlas_msgs
Replaced atlas-state by groundtruth (nav_msgs/Odometry). First response was undefined, but errors are about set_param.
Installed python2.6 from deadsnakes. Result is /usr/bin/python2.6, while /usr/bin/python is still a link to /usr/bin/python2.7. Checked /opt/ros/groovy/lib/, but groovy only has /opt/ros/groovy/lib/python2.7, so there will be no python2.6 sidepackages.

May 15, 2013

Waited nicely until both machine and launch were blue. Still, starting the simulator from the Cloudsim console showed no progress. Stopped the task.
Started from the commandline with additional arguments: roslaunch atlas_utils qual_task_1.launch gzargs="-r --record_path=/tmp/qual_task_1". The simulator seems to be running, but I have problems to connect.
Forgot to do a sudo ./start_vpn.bash. After that I could ping 11.8.0.1, Yet both gztopic view and export ROS_PACKAGE_PATH=`pwd`:$ROS_PACKAGE_PATH; python walk.py failed (Waiting on master).
The launch failed because the directory /tmp/qual_task_1 didn't exist. Run again with command roslaunch atlas_utils qual_task_1.launch gzname:=gzserver gzargs:="-r --record_path=/tmp/qual_task_1". gztopic view complains about conflicting gazebo versions (1.7.3 at pc-udk; 1.8.0 at cloud). Did a complete update, but nothing has to be updated. On the cloud a did a drcsim/setup.bash; on pc-udk I did a setup folllowed by a ros.bash.
When gzserver is launched I get the error "gzserver: malloc(): memory corruption (fast)".
Started the gzserver locally at pc-udk. This one starts without any errors. Only the machine is getting to a complete halt (90% cpu used). Could contact it with a script . local.bash (bash local.bash didn't change the GAZEBO_MASTER). Did a complete apt-get update; apt-get upgrade although I didn't see any important differences. Tried to start a Qualification task 2, but button remains grey. Tried to do it from command-line, got segmentation fault.
Found a paper about rosbridge, which promiss a coupling between ROS (and lcm) and web-applications as rosjs and json. There is also a more recent publication. Rosbridge (v2.0) is available from its own website.
Installed the rosbridge-server with command sudo apt-get install ros-groovy-rosbridge-server, followed by sudo apt-get install ros-groovy-rosbridge-suite. Before starting, I needed roslaunch (sudo apt-get install ros-groovy-ros-base). Executed source /opt/ros/groovy/setup.bash again to set ROS master URI. Then the command roslaunch rosbridge_server rosbridge_websocket.launch starts a server on port 40774. According to the documentation and [INFO] it starts a WebSocket at port 9090.
Made a simple webpage which connects to the Websocket and asks for atlas_state. Unfortunatelly, I get the error message:
[ERROR] [WallTime: 1368634389.483978] [Client 3] [id: subscribe:/atlas/atlas_state:1] subscribe: Unable to load the manifest for package atlas_msgs. Caused by: atlas_msgs. Should look for groovy-atlas-utils.
Problems of today could be due because I started a simulator_prelease constellation.

May 14, 2013

Did an apt-get update; apt-get upgrade on pc-udk (438 packages updated).
Started with ~/packages/cloudsim-1.4.0/bin/create_cloudsim.py, as described in Cloudsim Tutorial. Next I had to download the keys from my Cloudsim instance, and start /tmp/simulator_xxxxx/start_vpn.bash. Started a qual_task_1.launch.
Started sudo . start_vpn.bash. VPN is ready, but couldn't ping 11.8.0.1. Also rosrun rviz rviz could not contact ROS master at [http://11.8.0.1:11311]. Problem was that openvpn was not installed. After an sudo apt-get install openvpn I could ping. Yet, rviz stills fails. Telnet also fails (firewall problem?)
Looked at the meaning of the yellow blinking light. This means that the simulation is starting up, when running it should blink blue. Tried to stop it but this means a blinking red simulation task (for ever).
Checked with ssh, but /usr/share/drcsim-2.5/ros/atlas_utils/launch/qual_task_1.launch exist on this machine. I will terminate this constallation and try again. Directly when available I downloaded keys and monitored progress. The setup.log is short (installed openvpn key, setup auto xsession login, install drcsim). the tail from launch_stdout_stderr.log is more interesting. First getting the packages, unpacking, setting it up. In the mean time the Cloudsim console only showed an orange button for the launch and a blue one for the machine. After a while I was kicked out (rebooting). When I was able to login, the launch was blue and the simulator red. The simulation task was already starting up (yellow light blinking).
Manually started up roslaunch atlas_utils qual_task_1.launch gzname:=gzserver remotely. The first time I did rosrun rviz rviz I got a screen (with only hands). On the background I got many warnings about textures and meshes (not found relative to stack). Rerun drcsim setup, but now I get segmenation fault (after warnings about 2 visuals. Running from a fresh terminal gave me the same window (with OGRE warnings).
Started gztopic view, which gave me the camera images (looking to the sky). Started keyboard_teleop, which gave me started roslaunch server at http://11.8.0.2:36017/ with two nodes (actionlib_client and actionlib_server).
I created a score.log in /tmp/qual_task_1, but gzlog stop waited for ages on master. Created an empty state.log. Run the script /usr/bin/mkqual.bash 1 /tmp/qual_task_1/state.og /tmp/qual_task_1/score.log. Failed to get this zip-file from machine (scp mremote failed on ssh-authentication). Copied manually (part of) the content of the local logfiles and uploaded those to vrcportal. Terminated second simulator constellation.

May 13, 2013

Did an update to cope with all issues the other teams had found this last week. Tried to start the first qualification run with roslaunch atlas_utils qual_task_1.launch, but this failed (maybe because the installation was still busy in the background). Copied the demo.py from the control switch tutorial.
The tutorial now works, but the robot falls when commanding neck and arms. Brought the robot back via roslaunch atlas_utils keyboard_teleop.launch: Reset. Also without the movement of the arms the robot falls.
Added reset command to walk.py as pre-step. This works. Should also include teleop walk commands, which are the method twist.
I could now walk 4 steps. Strange enough it needs to demo walk, although it doesn't walk during the demo walk. Asking for another 4 steps with the same message doesn't work.
Got complains of using control_mode instead of sim_interface. Gave Freeze command via sim_interface, but now the robot falls on his back.

May 6, 2013

Trying to reproduce experiments of 2007. Made a script that starts DM-compWorldDay4b_250 with upis. Found that the start positions in the NorthEast are (-20, 17.5, -4), (-21.5, 17.5, -4) and (-21.5, 16, -4). Repaired a ComStation for UT2004 and mounted a GPS for the P2AT.

May 5, 2013

Following the video of the Gazebo workshop. Maybe the model of the PowerPlant is a nice model to try to include in USARSim.

May 4, 2013

Received the MRESim software from Julian. Build the software with ant, run the software with the command java -cp build\classes gui/MainGui:
Also on Linux (nb-ros) the software worked fine (with ant and openjdk-6-jdk). Only difference was that the robot configuration consisted of only a basestation. Loading the robot4-maze configuration solved this issue.

April 24, 2013

Tried to reproduce starting the service from nb-ros. Found my keys on /media/KINGSTON/persoonlijk/AmazonWebService.txt.
Starting 'simulator' constellation.
Continued with sudo apt-get install drcsim ros-fuerte-visualization, as indicated in gz client remote tutorial. Failed to get 64bits drcsim. After an sudo apt-get update it worked.
Continued with instructions and downloaded simulator_sessionID.zip. Unpacked it in /tmp. The script indicates that the ROS_MASTER is on machine 11..8.0.1 (and the IP on 0.2), but I could not ping both machines:
If I read it right, the rviz should be started locally (so I also started roscore), while gzclient and rostopic should be run after the simulator_sessionID\ros.bash (which let them connect remotely). Yet, the result is not much better: they are waiting on their master:
Checked the vpn connection tutorial.
With the vpn running, I could ping the ROS-master. Still I get a very long waiting for master clients:
I forgot to start a Simulation task. Now I get a Gazebo screen:
(Un)luckily the command gztopic echo /gazebo/default/world_states crashed.

Updated 22 packages (including drcsim) and tried again. Now gztopic works and I also get camera images:
Stopped the vpn and stopped the simulation task (hopefully for my credit-card this is enough).

April 19, 2013

Finally was able to start vpn on a 64bits Linux system. Downloaded ncui-7.3R4.i386.rpm. This package checks the preconditions, so can't not be automatically installed. Unpacked the contents with command tar -ztvf ncui-7.3R4.i386.rpm in /tmp. Copied the contents to /usr/local/nc.
Used the trick at the Ubuntu Forum and downloaded a 32bits java version and replaced /etc/alternatives/java with a script which redirects java to the 32bits version if the argument starts with NCx.
The command sudo ./ncsvc -h uvavpn.uva.nl -u XXXXXXX -r users -f uvavpn.uva.nl.der & now works (otherwise I couldn't have made this entry in my blog).

April 17, 2013

My Digitus DN-3023 Ethernet Adapter has arrived. Initially it looked like the card was not working. Installed the drivers from Asix AX88179.
Followed the tips from Ask Ubuntu. The device is listed when I inspect with command lsusb. It is also listed in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules as eth0. The command ifup eth0 didn't work. Adding a rule in /etc/network/interfaces, as suggested, didn't solve issue. Checked with command dmesg -kernel the messages and got the message that the card used more power than allowed. Also no LED lighted up at the Ethernet connection. I switched from battery to line-power, which solved this issue (LED lighted up and I got a wired connection).

April 16, 2013

Followed the CloudSim instructions and created an Amazon Web Service account.
The increase of EC2 GPU instance limit can take 3-5 business days :-(.
Continued CloudSim Setup and downloaded v1.4.0 of cloudsim. Now I only have to wait minutes to be ready :-).
Started first remote simulation task, but couldn't find the simulator_ID/ros.bash as mentioned in Cloudsim remote gzclient tutorial. Should try Download Keys button in the Cloudsim Console.

April 7, 2013

Was able to run DM-RoboCup2009Indoor1. The wine command performes a make in the ~/.wine/drive_c/UT2004/System directory. So I copied all USAR*.u files from this directory to ~/Games/UT2004, and the simulation works.

April 6, 2013

Copied the contents of /opt/UT2004 into ~/cvs/usarsim, so that I have write permission. Made System/make_native.csh which doesn't use wine. Still the UT2004 is missing the UT2004.ini.
The native compilation failed: 'ucc make' is broken on Unix/Mac right now.
Tried just to start game. The splash-screen starts, but "Can't find file 'Entry'. Copied Entry.ut2 to Maps. Next error is "Can't find file for package 'AS_FX_TX'. Copied the Maps, Textures, StaticMeshes and System/*.ini and *.u from nb-udk to nb-ros. At the end I was missing XGame_rc (battery gone of nb-udk). Some *.u files were still missing in System. After copying Animations I got a Tutorial of a DeadMatch.
I installed wine. The first call seems to install a directory ~/.wini in my home-drive. In ~/.wini there is a directory drive_c, which contains Program Files and Windows. Copied my UT2004 from nb-udk to this drive_c. Should add this UT200e to PATH in system.reg.
The command wine C:\\UT2004\\System\\UCC.exe make -ini=USARSim.ini worked, but still the response on ../System/ut2004-bin-linux-amd64 DM-RoboCup2009Indoor1?game=USARBot.USARDeathMatch?spectatorOnly=1?TimeLimit=0?quickstart=true -ini=USARSim.ini is:
Failed to enter DM-RoboCup2009Indoor1?game=USARBot.USARDeathMatch?spectatorOnly=1?TimeLimit=0?quickstart=true: Can't find file for package 'USARBot'

April 5, 2013

Installed the package libstdc++5, but the libSDL is not part of this package. It is part of libsdl1.2debian (which was already installed). Made a link to the library in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu. UT2004 starts, but complains about MissingIni.
Continued with controlling the AR.Drone from USARCommander. Send the Sonar GEO and CONF request, but the spawning was too low. Increased from -1.49 to -1.40. Now the AR.Drone is correctly spawned and all GEO and CONF request are send. I saw both camera's, but do not receive them in my GUI:
Increased in the USARBot.ini the X of front Camera from 0.024 to 0.224 (and the spawning heigth to -1.3, still a lot of turning while lifting up). The view is much better:
Made 32bits version of upis. Had to put 'ignore warning 4273' on to get it build. Running upis with command upis.exe -l -f NORMAL ..\..\System\ "DM-compWorldDay5c_250?game=USARBot.USARDeathMatch?spectactoronly=1?TimeLimit=0?quickstart=true -ini=usarsim.ini" gave error "DetourCreateProcessWithDll failed with error: 5". With ..\..\System\ut2004-win64.exe gave error 0 and ..\..\System\ut2004.exe gave the error that the detour.dll couldn't be found. Sander made its own hook because there is no 64bits detour.dll.
Modified USARSim.ini (in [Engine.Engine] from [Engine.Engine] RenderDevice=D3D9Drv.D3D9RenderDevice to RenderDevice=D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice. Now it works. Only I get the splash screen. Probably I forgot the space in front of the map. Downloaded the working script RoboCup09%20Indoor1.bat. For RoboCup2009_Indoor I am missing NISTTextures.
With the ImageServer working, I got the camera view in UsarSim (bottom camera):

Submitted Rev. 2800.
nb-ros got wet and doesn't start up. Hopefully drying will help.
Found the NISTStatic.usx and NISTTextures.utx on my backup drive. Only remaining error is missing chair in USARMasterStatic.usx (my version was June 23, 2006).

April 4, 2013

Downloading the UT2004-lnxpatch3369 and the ut2004-ECEBonusPack for Linux. Following the instructions of the forum, I only have to add my key to UT2004_PATH/System/cdkey.
Installed ut2004. Unfortunatelly, I have to wait until I am connected to the internet until I can install libstdc++5.
Need a USB3-Ethernet-adapter. The version of Digitus is 29 euro but white, while the one from StarTech is 65 euro and black. Both without Linux drivers! Chipset manufacturer has some drivers: V1.3.0 for ASIX AX88179. Even an V1.4.0 (Feb 2013).

April 3, 2013

Could start roslaunch atlas_utils atlas.launch after source /usr/share/drcsim/setup.sh.
The launch files are in /usr/share/drcsim-2.2/ros/atlas_utils/launch/
Performed a roslaunch atlas_utils qual_task_1.launch successfully, but should first follow a tutorial about camera management.
Started a system monitor. All four cores were at 80%, but now gazebo crashes. Memory usage is only 2 of the 8 GB. Without the monitor gazebo still starts.

April 1, 2013

Followed the instructions to Install DRC, which boils down to a simple sudo apt-get install drcsim. Result is 7 new packages and 49 upgraded packages. The new package are for instance the sandi-hand and the packages for the pr2.

March 31, 2013

Installed UT2004 from disk on nb-udk. Installed patch 3369, followed by the 64 bits variant. Continued with the Editor's Choice Bonus pack (v1.1). Installed unwheel_msu followed by unwheel_ec (in that order).
Following the instructions at the manual, I changed UT2004 tempory to usarsim and did export CVSROOT=:ext:physar@usarsim.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/usarsim;cvs co usarsim from my cygwin shell (with cvs installed).
Installed AAA_MapBaseFiles_V3.31.exe and DM-RoboCup06Worlds_V3.31.exe. Modified DM-CompWorldDay5c.bat to start as 64bits. Doesn't start. Tryied Day5b, but got error messag "Can't find file for package D3D9Drv".
Doesn't start because I didn't do make.bat in System. Failed on missing ..\Textures\USARSim_Vehicles_Textures.utx. Installing USARSimBaseFiles_3.37.exe solved this issue.
make.bat still failed on 4 errors: missing Static mesh for ARDroneBody, LeggedRobots HOAP dummy and Vehicles WAMArm.
Copying USARSim_ARDrone_Textures and _Meshes solved the issue with the ARDroneBody, but still 4 errors.
The Barett WAMArm is a project of Derek Burch from the University of California, Merced.
Linked the ARDrone to the right Texture and Meshes (Vehicle->ARDrone). Still had Problems with PioneerArm, HOAP, Bumbelbee and WAMArm. Moved those files one directory up and I could compile (and Day5c starts). The 32bits Day5b has still the same failure (D3D9Drv).

March 29, 2013

Could connect to Kenaf with usarsimKenaf.launch file. Had to remove encoder because I get warnings about messages without name (looks like every sensortype has to be initialized with UsarSimList). Have to test teleop_twist_keyboard and gmapping. keyboard works. Mapping also works, although I would not be surprised if the scans are mirrored (couldn't recognize map).

March 27, 2013

Continue with adrone_tools setup.
Had also to install the standalone tools with sudo apt-get install python-rosinstall python-rosdep python-pygame, otherwise rosmake and rosdep doesn't work.
Couldn't perform a rosmake because ~/.ros was from root. Moved it to tmp and a made a personal copy. Now rosmake works.
Finished also ardrone simulation setup, and was able to control an ardrone in Gazebo.
Continued with usarsim-code. Performed a rosmake usarsim_inf. Failed on missing control_msgs package. Performing a sudo apt-get install ros-fuerte-control solved the issue.

March 26, 2013

Started with Waterfront and TallTestWorld at nb-unreal. Both failed (but steam was still updating at that time). spqrSoccerWorld worked. Added InsTest to AR.Drone.
When I started usarsim_node, I got the addition rostopics cmd_vel, joint_states, tf. Position Robot1 was unknown, so I got a UT-character. Only one named position: PlayerStart. Seems that this position is too low.
The new nb-ros has arrived. As indicated at the forum by Jacques, the wireless is unstable (and no ethernet connector so solved it wired). I also have a Cisco router (EFC3925). Switched off the n-protocol with the commands:
echo "options iwlwifi 11n_disable=1" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf sudo modprobe -rfv iwlwifi sudo modprobe -v iwlwifi
After this change the network was stable enough to download the rest of ros-fuerte-desktop-full.

March 25, 2013

After the session at the IMAV Hacketon at the Dutch German Wind Tunnel, I did git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/usarsimros/code usarsimros-code in ROS/packages, followed by a make in usarsim_inf.
Connected to P3AT running in IranOpen2012semi. Don't see camera-tile. Ros side complained about
- Unknown Conf type Camera
- Ignoring transform from child_frame because of nan value in transform (all rotations).
- Got status from GndTruth while expecting InsTest.
Continued with ROS navigation stack. Installed sudo apt-get install ros-fuerte-brown-remotelab and ros-fuerte-slam-gmapping. Called rosrun teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard.py and could navigate (robot only stops moving when asked).
Also started rosrun gmapping slam_gmapping scan:=lms200 _odom_frame:=odom and saved after 6 nodes (157 scans) with command rosrun map_server map_saver:

March 4, 2013

Logged in under Linux-Mint on pc-udk. Followed Gazebo starting tutorial. Could do roslaunch gazebo_worlds empty_world.launch, but get response [gazebo_worlds] is not a package or launch file name. Checked /usr/share/drcsim-1.3/worlds/ and found 8 worlds.
First tried the powerplant world, but the launch-file wasn't found. Found a working configuration roslaunch atlas_utils atlas_no_controllers.launch.

February 22, 2013

Dell has XPS developer edition. The machine is available in the Netherlands since next week, yet on the Dutch store I only could buy XPS 13 with Windows8.

January 30, 2013

Found the following interesting Darpa Robotics challenge articles on IEEE Spectrum and robots.net. The last one has a link to a video of the DRC Hubo Team which visualise the Darpa Robotics Challenge quite well.

January 22, 2013

The Mobile Robot Programming Toolkit site contains to some new datasets (Kinect based) and some old datasets (laserscan based).

January 11, 2013

Installed version 310.90 from Nvidia (which again solves some startup problems with UT3). I did it in advanced mode, which updated only the graphical and 3D drivers (not the PhysX drivers). I will check if the IranOpen will start again in 64bits. Yes, the 64bits version works again.

January 9, 2013

Should try out CloudSim Tutorial as suggested on DRC forum.

January 4, 2013

Tried the same setup with UDK-2012-05. Now I get three camera-tiles (next to each other). The conversation is stopped (new code), but no new conversation is started when I brought robot1 in range of robot2.
No new conversation is requested, because the operator thinks that it is still connected (while the connection is cleared in NotifyConversationStopped). Added additional print statements. Extracted Sanaz' Multiview.uc in UDK-2012-05.
Still good camera-tiles in UDK-2012-05. Drove Robot2 out of range and back. All the time I got the message that Robot2 still thinks that it is connected to the BaseStation (and vise versa) (CloseConversation not seen). Maybe I should add a reconnect button! I am out of memory.

January 3, 2013

Found nothing wrong with config. 32bits version works fine with -d3d11. Still no images visible.
Drove robot2 out of range (-93.6 dBm). Got warning 'Exception while trying to send message', System.IO.IOException, connection broken. That should be the connection to the BaseStation. Could still control robot through Robot1.
Checked the code. The conversation should be restarted when back in range. Added some debug-strings.
Restart doesn't happen because the connection is still there (although the socket is broken). Now I stop the conversation on error (maybe should only do that for this specific error). First see if it works (but I get kicked out by WSS).

January 2, 2013

Updated UsarSim and downloaded Sanaz patch. Had to update Envy_Effects.upk to run IranOpen2012semi without warnings.
Didn't get any images in my GUI, but that is possible due to the config.
Strange enough, the 64bits verion of IranOpen doesn't start (thought I solved that issue with the Nvidia-patch).