Re: [PlayerStage-Gazebo] Re: Ogre3D

[Nate K. <nat...@gm...>]

On 3/14/06, smog zer <sm...@gm...> wrote:
> Here is my opinion by topic.
>
> underlying engine:
>
> http://www.yake.org/index.php?option=3Dcom_content&task=3Dview&id=3D34&It=
emid=3D44
> ). Haven't tried it yet but the feature list is very nice. It will save a=
lot
> of work.

I'm not a big fan of game engines. Too many dependencies, and
generally they include features that won't be used.

> gui:
>    Use fltk 2. It is simple even for newbies and the tree widget can cont=
ain
> other types of widget, and can also be used to represent xml hierarchies.
> Use with boost to get even more possibilities out of it like signals and
> slots.

That has already been chosen.

> robots:
>    Avoid code duplication. Don't define robots, or sensors. Instead make
> composite robots with elements defined in xml.
>    This will enable a robot/sensor assembly tool in the future. Use yake
> that loads xode (xml ode) definitions.

Robot's are currently a collection of effectors and sensors connect
via some kind of body. This methodology will remain the same.

> sensors:
>    at least 3 kinds of sensors should be present: ranger, framegrabber an=
d
> proximity (e.g. minedetector, if near a landmark say distance)
>    Provide noise iterators also that will be applied to these 3 sensors
> types.

We currently have a camera, and a ray (aka laser) sensor. We try to
implement simulations of realistic sensors. A "proximity" sensor is
somewhat unrealistic. What are you sensing? Movement, heat, noise?

> hability to fork experiments:
>    duplicate a scenario on the fly, this will enable "what if" experiment=
s.
> Can be useful for trajectory planning and such - e.g. eliminate scenarios
> where the robot joints brakes - much like particle filtering.

I plan on enabling saving of simulation state information. Spawning
multiple gazebo simulations is interesting.

> dynamic world editing:
>    manipulate robots, click on robot and edit it's properties(text editor
> and edit xml tags, when done reload xml), drag xml filenames into the wor=
ld
> and see the xml entities defined there beeing created on the world.

Yes this will addressed with the new gui.

> don't try to be all in one:
>    do not try to be a robot controller, that is a job for playerv and my
> playerviewer3d (made available soon).

This is pretty obvious. Gazebo has never and will never try to be Player.

>  xml:
>    drop the ugly gnome libxml in favor of the cute tinyxml.

I'll look into tinyxml. Our current xml parser works right now, so I'm
hesitant to change it before fixing and improving other aspects.


-nate