Discussion:
webots 5.1.6 and 5.1.7
Gábor Balázs
2006-09-11 08:18:12 UTC
Permalink
Hello Oliver,

We collected a couple of questions about these webots versions.

We used 5.1.6 under windows xp (because 5.1.7 became unstable there
after the controller modification), and version 5.1.7 under gentoo linux.

1) In both versions the simulations are finished by the environment after
100 seconds (independently from battery state).
Why does it happen? Can you disable it?

2) In both versions if you press the Alt or the Ctrl button, the environment
thinks you never release them,
so you have to revert the simulation to get the control back. It is very
disturbing after an Alt+Tab pressing.
Anyway the robot_keyboard_get_key function hardly notices the keyboard
events if we use a few (more than 3)
robot_console_printf function call in every simulation step (we only
tested it with the 5.1.6 version).

3) In 5.1.7 version after the simulation finishes I think the robot_die
function is not called because the processes are killed
and the appropriate string is not printed on the console. It works fine
in the 5.1.6 version.

4) The webots internal text editor is always opened after a simulation
revert.
Can I disable it somehow? :)

5) In the 5.1.7 version under linux, it is printed sometimes:

transform field # = 0x3

** ERROR **: file api/scene_manager.c: line 140
(scene_manager_read_transform_update): should not be reached
aborting...

Anyway I don't know when exactly, because I didn't notice any problem in
the environment because of it.

6) I noticed that Aibos' don't have GPS. This info would be good for us
later in fitness functions, so I tried to
"simulate" GPS by the supervisor function, but I have two questions
about the emitter - reciever concept:

- How you can set the channel of a receiver like in the case of
emitter with emitter_set channel?
- What are the receiver_get_x and receiver_get_z functions?
(these seem to be what is needed for GPS, but I don't know how
to use them
and they are not in the API documentation)

7) Is that possible that the supervisor process pause the simulation?
For example to run a new thread from a robot controller which makes some
computation until the simulation is paused.

Sorry for the lot of questions. :)
Br,
`bg` & cy
Gábor Balázs
2006-09-28 19:04:09 UTC
Permalink
Hello Oliver!

It seems that webots 5.1.9 reloads the controllers after 100 seconds
independently on battery state.

Br,
`bg`
Post by Gábor Balázs
Hello Oliver,
We collected a couple of questions about these webots versions.
We used 5.1.6 under windows xp (because 5.1.7 became unstable there
after the controller modification), and version 5.1.7 under gentoo linux.
1) In both versions the simulations are finished by the environment after
100 seconds (independently from battery state).
Why does it happen? Can you disable it?
2) In both versions if you press the Alt or the Ctrl button, the
environment thinks you never release them,
so you have to revert the simulation to get the control back. It is
very disturbing after an Alt+Tab pressing.
Anyway the robot_keyboard_get_key function hardly notices the keyboard
events if we use a few (more than 3)
robot_console_printf function call in every simulation step (we only
tested it with the 5.1.6 version).
3) In 5.1.7 version after the simulation finishes I think the robot_die
function is not called because the processes are killed
and the appropriate string is not printed on the console. It works
fine in the 5.1.6 version.
4) The webots internal text editor is always opened after a simulation
revert.
Can I disable it somehow? :)
transform field # = 0x3
** ERROR **: file api/scene_manager.c: line 140
(scene_manager_read_transform_update): should not be reached
aborting...
Anyway I don't know when exactly, because I didn't notice any problem
in the environment because of it.
6) I noticed that Aibos' don't have GPS. This info would be good for us
later in fitness functions, so I tried to
"simulate" GPS by the supervisor function, but I have two questions
- How you can set the channel of a receiver like in the case
of emitter with emitter_set channel?
- What are the receiver_get_x and receiver_get_z functions?
(these seem to be what is needed for GPS, but I don't know
how to use them
and they are not in the API documentation)
7) Is that possible that the supervisor process pause the simulation?
For example to run a new thread from a robot controller which makes
some computation until the simulation is paused.
Sorry for the lot of questions. :)
Br,
`bg` & cy
Olivier Michel
2006-09-29 09:38:31 UTC
Permalink
Hi Gabor,

Yes, this is true... I have to investigate this, as it should not behave
like this...
I will get back here whenever I found the problem.

-Olivier
Post by Gábor Balázs
Hello Oliver!
It seems that webots 5.1.9 reloads the controllers after 100 seconds
independently on battery state.
Br,
`bg`
Hello Oliver,
We collected a couple of questions about these webots versions.
We used 5.1.6 under windows xp (because 5.1.7 became unstable there
after the controller modification), and version 5.1.7 under gentoo linux.
1) In both versions the simulations are finished by the
environment after 100 seconds (independently from battery state).
Why does it happen? Can you disable it?
2) In both versions if you press the Alt or the Ctrl button, the
environment thinks you never release them,
so you have to revert the simulation to get the control back.
It is very disturbing after an Alt+Tab pressing.
Anyway the robot_keyboard_get_key function hardly notices the
keyboard events if we use a few (more than 3)
robot_console_printf function call in every simulation step
(we only tested it with the 5.1.6 version).
3) In 5.1.7 version after the simulation finishes I think the
robot_die function is not called because the processes are killed
and the appropriate string is not printed on the console. It
works fine in the 5.1.6 version.
4) The webots internal text editor is always opened after a
simulation revert.
Can I disable it somehow? :)
transform field # = 0x3
** ERROR **: file api/scene_manager.c: line 140
(scene_manager_read_transform_update): should not be reached
aborting...
Anyway I don't know when exactly, because I didn't notice any
problem in the environment because of it.
6) I noticed that Aibos' don't have GPS. This info would be good
for us later in fitness functions, so I tried to
"simulate" GPS by the supervisor function, but I have two
- How you can set the channel of a receiver like in
the case of emitter with emitter_set channel?
- What are the receiver_get_x and receiver_get_z functions?
(these seem to be what is needed for GPS, but I
don't know how to use them
and they are not in the API documentation)
7) Is that possible that the supervisor process pause the simulation?
For example to run a new thread from a robot controller which
makes some computation until the simulation is paused.
Sorry for the lot of questions. :)
Br,
`bg` & cy
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Olivier Michel
2006-09-29 09:57:40 UTC
Permalink
It seems that those 100 seconds correspond exactly to the time necessary
to empty the battery and indeed, if you look at the battery level
displayed in the robot window, the robot controller will die immediately
when this level reaches 0. So, this is the normal behavior.
Post by Gábor Balázs
Hello Oliver,
We collected a couple of questions about these webots versions.
We used 5.1.6 under windows xp (because 5.1.7 became unstable there
after the controller modification), and version 5.1.7 under gentoo linux.
Version 5.1.9 should be more stable than 5.1.7 as we fixed many small bugs.
Post by Gábor Balázs
1) In both versions the simulations are finished by the
environment after 100 seconds (independently from battery state).
Why does it happen? Can you disable it?
It works fine for me (the simulation stop when one of the robot reaches
a 0 battery level). Did you display both robot battery level?
Post by Gábor Balázs
2) In both versions if you press the Alt or the Ctrl button, the
environment thinks you never release them,
so you have to revert the simulation to get the control back.
It is very disturbing after an Alt+Tab pressing.
Anyway the robot_keyboard_get_key function hardly notices the
keyboard events if we use a few (more than 3)
robot_console_printf function call in every simulation step
(we only tested it with the 5.1.6 version).
This should work much better in Webots 5.1.9. Can you give it a try?
Post by Gábor Balázs
3) In 5.1.7 version after the simulation finishes I think the
robot_die function is not called because the processes are killed
and the appropriate string is not printed on the console. It
works fine in the 5.1.6 version.
This was also fixed in Webots 5.1.9.
Post by Gábor Balázs
4) The webots internal text editor is always opened after a
simulation revert.
Can I disable it somehow? :)
No, if you don't have a registered version of Webots...
I could disable it by default, but I believe it's nice to see the text
editor the first time you open the simulation world...
So, I am not sure whether or not we should disable it by default...
Maybe I can create another version in which the text editor doesn't popup...
Post by Gábor Balázs
transform field # = 0x3
** ERROR **: file api/scene_manager.c: line 140
(scene_manager_read_transform_update): should not be reached
aborting...
Anyway I don't know when exactly, because I didn't notice any
problem in the environment because of it.
This should also be fixed in Webots 5.1.9.
Post by Gábor Balázs
6) I noticed that Aibos' don't have GPS. This info would be good
for us later in fitness functions, so I tried to
"simulate" GPS by the supervisor function, but I have two
Real Aibos don't have a GPS...
Post by Gábor Balázs
- How you can set the channel of a receiver like in
the case of emitter with emitter_set channel?
Webots 5.1.9 has a function to do it.
Post by Gábor Balázs
- What are the receiver_get_x and receiver_get_z functions?
These functions are not documented because they are not supported and
may be bugged. They were used to know the relative x,z position of the
emitter... I would recommend you not to use them.
Post by Gábor Balázs
(these seem to be what is needed for GPS, but I
don't know how to use them
and they are not in the API documentation)
7) Is that possible that the supervisor process pause the simulation?
For example to run a new thread from a robot controller which
makes some computation until the simulation is paused.
Not within the framework of the contest. Of course if you have a regular
license of Webots, you can do it.

-Olivier




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