It was a long time since the last release and many things got extended or improved. One of the bigger updates is the possibility to use a more general multi-body physics algorithm that supports closed kinematic chains, instead of the standard Featherstone's implementation, which, by the way, still remains the default option, due to its high stability, accuracy and performance. Many different problems across the simulator were fixed. Finally, I have restructured some of the core classes, which turned out to be necessary when developing the new ROS2 interface package. I decided that the release of the ROS2 package is a good excuse to finally release the new version of the_Stonefish_ library! Please check the changelog and documentation, because some of the changes in code are breaking (in italics).
Cheers!
Changelog:
- Restructured the SimulationApp class and its children to support the new ROS2 interface
- Reimplemented Robot definition to allow for two different algorithms: the Featherstone's algorithm and a general constraint solving algorithm; the general algorithm allows for kinematic loops in the robot structure
- Added origin definition to standard obstacle solids to enable local transformations
- Updated definition of accelerometer, gyroscope and IMU sensors, including parser support
- Extended DVL model, with water layer velocity measurement and new noise models, including parser support
- Added easy access to the parameters of the constraint solver, including parser support
- Implemented an INS combining internal gyroscopes and accelerometers with external sensors like DVL and GPS, including parser support
- Implemented methods which enable live updates of sensor and actuator frames
- Implemented magnetic interaction between materials to enable simulation of permanent magnets
- Implemented parsing of mathematical expressions in scenario files
- Improved support for console simulations
- Improved support for non-realitime simulations
- Separated underwater and above water rendering paths
- Eliminated precomputation of atmospheric scattering (loaded from resources)
- Improved ocean reflections
- Reimplemented XML parser logging mechanism
- Significantly improved XML parser error and warning messages (easier location of errors)
- Extended implementation of velocity fields to facilitate online updates
- Added optional functionality to embed internal resources in the library binary
- Fixed spline interpolation of trajectories with subsequent overlapping points
- Fixed measurement of accelerations
- Fixed unstable multibody joint position control
- Fixed computation of moments of inertia
- Fixed trackball implementation - better zoom and translation of the main 3D view
- Fixed mouse issues in the main 3D view