RTB - Team Framework / News: Recent posts

In the download category rtb-extra-stuff, you will find a lot of UML and FMC diagrams that were used to design and implement our software.
These diagrams are a good start if you plan to participate in our team or just want to know something about the internals of the framework and our intentions behind it.
Reading the source often does not bring you that lot as design diagrams, so please take a look of them first, before reading the code over and over again.

The RealTimeBattle Team Framework Group proudly announces version 1.1 of our software.
In comparison to version 1.0, some minor bug fixes were applied and the robots now have fancier names.
Furthermore, we support two new strategies: Cobra and Columbus, where Cobra is a xt-bot-b adaption and Columbus still in its alpha stages.
Columbus is a very challenging strategy and will be very heavy improved in the next time, so please frequently check sourceforge for updates 8-)
RealTimeBattle 1.0.8-Ext includes this release, so you do not have to have to download it in case you already use this version of RealTimeBattle.... read more

The tutorial how to write strategies and how to use our framework was extended and overworked in this week.
Perhaps, the most notable addition is a section about the different loggers that are available for the framework and how to use them for your own code.

You can find the updated document as always in our documentation section on our web site:
http://rtb-team.sourceforge.net/strategy-diagrams/manual/... read more

We are very proud to release the first version of RealTimeBattle that is maintained by our group.

In the extended edition you can see our robot strategies "brotfrucht" and "empty". We also included a nice tutorial how to write robots that can cooperate in a team.

Do not miss the other features like the joystick bot that can be used to testify the efficiency of our strategies.

See https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=430684
for details.

While the official release of RealTimeBattle 1.0.7 will be in the next two weeks, the source parts of the framework are already complete, so we can release them now.
The biggest changes made in comparison to the first full working release are the autoconfiscation steps taken to automate the configuration and installation of the software package.
If you specify the same prefix for configure as for RealTimeBattle itself, this package will install its sample robots in the correct places.
Configuration and deployment of the robots is done via scripts, so that you do not have to write your own configuration and wrapper files for the framework components any longer (if you like, you can proceed with this option of course).
Please note that this release only includes the sources and configure scripts, additional information (tutorials, online help, etc) will be shipped in the RTB 1.0.7 release and later releases of this package (you can find these resources on our web site as well).
Please also note, that you need a patch for the RealTimeBattle server in order to use this software, this patch is included in the first working release and will be applied in the RTB 1.0.7 release as well.
A last hint: Use absolute coordinates for the robots written with this framework, otherwise they won't work.... read more

Today, we received a mail, that we are allowed to overtake the
realtime battle project on sourceforge. This is a great honor for our group and we try to make out the best of this challenge.
We will focus on updating the web site / documentation, removing the bugs of version 1.0.6 and adding our documentation to the project. Furthermore, we will release a version of realtime battle bundeled with our framework code.
Of course, realtime battle will stay independent from our framework.
The development of the new version of realtime battle is not a main task of our group, but of the old maintainer of the project who will naturally stay in this position.
We hope, that we can work hand in hand and profit from each other.
In the next weeks, we will investigate the project, release a version that will fix the worst bugs and update the documentation. If we have something really new, we will let you know.... read more

Finally, we also have an online help generated out of source code (tools: doxygen and kdoc). The versions are not the perfect ones now, but we will improve the quality soon.
You can find the documentations in the directory generated_documents on our web site.

Finally we have made it: The first strategy (brotfrucht) is ready now and can be tried out. Don't expect too much it is only a strategy to demonstrate the framework, but it works perfectly as we specified it.

Simply try it out and begin to write your own strategies.

Johannes Nicolai

Today, I have written a tutorial containing all information you should need to write your own strategy. You can find the file in the documentation manager section tutorials.

On 9 / 21, we will make our first file release containing a complete first version of our framework including IO Factory, generated documentation, corresponding design documents and a building script.

All changes to th framework should be submitted till 9 / 20.

Johannes

Since the core components of the framework are ready now, we have switched to the alpha state now.

This change will be reflected by a new CVS tree and a first fiule release of the framework with generated javadoc at the end of the summer vacancies.

Finally, the point is arrived now, where we can link the rtb-frame work executable and let it run. The core components are ready now and working. To test the framework, we still wait for the completion of an IO factory and a sample strategy (both in work and will complete this summer).
After this, the framework can be used to test the "real" strategies for our robots.

Tomorrow, most of us will write our last test (business administration), afterwards, the process on our project will continue. The months august and september will be the months of rtb team 8-)

I hope, that we have first results in downloadable form at the beginning of the new semester!

Johannes

Because this semester is nearly over and we have to write the exams now, we do not expect big progress in the RTB team before the summer vacancies. During this time, many developers will proceeed with their work.
It is planned, that at the beginning of the new semester, the framework and a first strategy will be ready. At this stage, some work of the analysis group will be finished, so that some developers of this team can join the strategy team and the framework team that will be merged together.

Thanks to Falko and Gregor, who wrote a tutorial for windows user, CVS now can be used easily by any member of our group. So use the moment a commit your work fast!

Johannes

Because we will only have three meetings in this semester, we have to hurry up to present a first file release at the end of July.
Of course, we can use the summer vacancies to complete some missing points and proceed in the winter semester, but we should use the time left now and try to fullfill our assigned tasks now.

Johannes

After a meeting this Friday, all groups have assigned their first tasks.
So rtb-team can change its status from planning to pre- alpha now.

Almost every subproject has released a variety of tasks now. So you are welcome to apply to one or more job you like to do for our project.

Have a lot of fun!

Johannes

PS: There are no current jobs in the strategy subproject but some in the framwork project with the annotation "strategy relevant" that were thought to be very interesting to fulfill by members of the strategy group, too. So have a look!

Now it's time for all developers to register in one or more of the project's main groups. Until next week, the coordinators will have posted the first tasks to the task assignment system.
Hopefully, the project now will begin to show its first results!

The generated sourcecode from the UML CASE tool umbrella was not the best, so I cleaned the code at this weekend.
The sources now found in the CVS repository should be the base for framework developers to start from.

Today on 04/27/2004 at 3:30 pm we will have our first meeting. The summary of all issues discussed there is already uploaded in the CVS tree and the document manager.
Every developer, who is interested in participating in this project, should first read the notes of the first meeting and agree with the rules written there.

Johannes