Re: [Darwin2k-devel] Hi

[Chris L. <cl...@ea...>]

Hi Hans,

Welcome aboard.  New developers are always welcome--I don't have time at
work to do darwin2k development except for bug fixes and feature
additions that are directly needed for my research, so most of my
Darwin2K development is done at home these days.

>  Before I plunge into the code, I have to install the
> package though. I found out it is not so trivial. First,
> on the homepage the link to the RTC 1.6 release doesn't
> work (see 4/21/2001). BTW, what does that library do? A
> little explanation on the home-page wouldn't hurt.

Yes, that's true: some more documentation is needed.  RTC is an
inter-process communication package, and is used in Darwin2K to allow
the robot optimization process to be distributed across a network of
workstations (or across multiple CPUs on an SMP machine).  The main
process is called the 'population manager', which creates configurations
and sends them to a number of 'evalautor' processes.  The evaluators
simulate each robot and send a summary of the robot's performance back
to the population manager, which uses that information to guide
generation of more robots.  So, if you want to do *automated* synthesis
and optimization of robots using Darwin2K, you'll need RTC; however, if
you are only interested in simulating robots, then RTC isn't needed.

Also, the current RTC autoconf/automake setup needs to be changed a
little: I now have RTC 1.8 binaries for some platforms (linux w/ 2.4
kernel, solaris, and Irix) and RTC 1.6 for others (linux w/ 2.2
kernel).  I need to rebuild the RTC tarballs so that there's a 'default'
architecture under rtc/lib/ and rtc/bin/, and the automake/autoconf
stuff should try to use the default architecture if the exact OS version
isn't found.  For example, right now if you are using Irix 6.5, the RTC
libraries for Irix 6.4 will work but the autoconf script won't be able
to find them.  Anyway, yes--it still needs some documentation and
cleanup!

>  I would like to join the development team, and start with something simple - like
> adding some motors we use at the company 

That should be pretty straightforward.  I'll have to make sure the
documentation is up-to-date for that!

Do you have a SourceForge account yet?  If not, please get one; that
will allow you access to the CVS repository.  Let me know what your
username is, and I'll add you to the list of developers.

Thanks,

Chris