Which orocos version for new project?

Hello,

I am at PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
Stockholm, Sweden. We have just started a new project for taking part in
the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (http://www.gcdc.net). In brief,
it involves making a real truck drive autonomously in city and highway
traffic. The project has just started and will finish in March 2011.

I am thinking of using orocos RTT on an embedded powerpc platform for
this project. There would be a number of tasks for gathering/processing
data from sensors, wireless interfaces and sending messages over the
truck's CAN bus.

Which version of Orocos should we start off with? I see on the website
that Orocos RTT 2.0.0 should have been released yesterday, but there is
no information whether this has actually happened. I have used RTT 1.6.X
and 1.8.X for earlier projects, but having hung around on this mailing
list for a while, I gathered an impression that RTT 2.0.0 was the new
big thing and might be worth waiting for. We really cannot wait more
than a couple of weeks to get started, and do expect the new release to
be bug-free enough to not get in the way of what we are actually trying
to do (driving the truck).

So, should we wait for RTT-2.0.0 or start with the most recent 1.X
release? I'd welcome feedback and suggestions from the community,
especially developers and those who've test-driven the RTT-2.0.0 betas.

Thanks in advance,
Sagar

Which orocos version for new project?

On Aug 17, 2010, at 10:40 , Sagar Behere wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am at PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
> Stockholm, Sweden. We have just started a new project for taking part in
> the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (http://www.gcdc.net). In brief,
> it involves making a real truck drive autonomously in city and highway
> traffic. The project has just started and will finish in March 2011.
>
> I am thinking of using orocos RTT on an embedded powerpc platform for
> this project. There would be a number of tasks for gathering/processing
> data from sensors, wireless interfaces and sending messages over the
> truck's CAN bus.
>
> Which version of Orocos should we start off with? I see on the website
> that Orocos RTT 2.0.0 should have been released yesterday, but there is
> no information whether this has actually happened. I have used RTT 1.6.X
> and 1.8.X for earlier projects, but having hung around on this mailing
> list for a while, I gathered an impression that RTT 2.0.0 was the new
> big thing and might be worth waiting for. We really cannot wait more
> than a couple of weeks to get started, and do expect the new release to
> be bug-free enough to not get in the way of what we are actually trying
> to do (driving the truck).
>
> So, should we wait for RTT-2.0.0 or start with the most recent 1.X
> release? I'd welcome feedback and suggestions from the community,
> especially developers and those who've test-driven the RTT-2.0.0 betas.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Sagar

See here for my 2c on this issue ...

http://orocos.org/forum/orocos/orocos-users/about-orocos

Note to all - this question is going to keep getting asked over the next few weeks and months. Perhaps we should put some pro's/con's on the main v2 page or dedicate a wiki page to this? IMHO the answer to this question is not straight forward - providing users with some data would help inform their choice.

HTH
Stephen

Which orocos version for new project?

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Sagar Behere wrote:

> I am at PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
> Stockholm, Sweden. We have just started a new project for taking part in
> the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (http://www.gcdc.net). In brief,
> it involves making a real truck drive autonomously in city and highway
> traffic. The project has just started and will finish in March 2011.
>
> I am thinking of using orocos RTT on an embedded powerpc platform for
> this project.

Powerpc is not a very actively supported hardware platform... Because there
are not that many users known to me that use Powerpc. (I would be thrilled
if someone can point me to proofs of the opposite :-))

> There would be a number of tasks for gathering/processing
> data from sensors, wireless interfaces and sending messages over the
> truck's CAN bus.
>
> Which version of Orocos should we start off with? I see on the website
> that Orocos RTT 2.0.0 should have been released yesterday, but there is
> no information whether this has actually happened.

It will take a week or two more.

> I have used RTT 1.6.X and 1.8.X for earlier projects,
Also on Powerpc? If so, it would be nice to report failure/success to the
developers mailinglist from time to time.

> but having hung around on this mailing
> list for a while, I gathered an impression that RTT 2.0.0 was the new
> big thing and might be worth waiting for.

I think so. For example, the data gathering component that you were
mentioning before: we are having students using RTT 2.0 (pre-releases) to
do a "service and plug-in based" implementation of a similar functionality
on top of EtherCat. That implementation (not yet finished, debugged, let
alone released as "stable"; but many discussions have already been held
about in on the developers mailing list) could serve as a starting point
for your application goals...

> We really cannot wait more
> than a couple of weeks to get started, and do expect the new release to
> be bug-free enough to not get in the way of what we are actually trying
> to do (driving the truck).

Well, a free software project does not really work this way, does it... :-)

> So, should we wait for RTT-2.0.0 or start with the most recent 1.X
> release? I'd welcome feedback and suggestions from the community,
> especially developers and those who've test-driven the RTT-2.0.0 betas.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Sagar

Herman

Which orocos version for new project?

+1 for PowerPC. We are using Orocos RTT 1.X on a PowerPC platform (Xilinx
Virtex-5 FXT FPGA with embedded PPC440 Cores). Altough we didn't made yet
exhaustive development on this platform, it works well for now (including
the Corba transport layer). With a bit of work, we were able to
cross-compile OmniORB, Boost, RTT and OCL using the ELDK-ppc4xx toolchain.

2010/8/17 Herman Bruyninckx <Herman [dot] Bruyninckx [..] ...>

> On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Sagar Behere wrote:
>
> > I am at PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
> > Stockholm, Sweden. We have just started a new project for taking part in
> > the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (http://www.gcdc.net). In brief,
> > it involves making a real truck drive autonomously in city and highway
> > traffic. The project has just started and will finish in March 2011.
> >
> > I am thinking of using orocos RTT on an embedded powerpc platform for
> > this project.
>
> Powerpc is not a very actively supported hardware platform... Because there
> are not that many users known to me that use Powerpc. (I would be thrilled
> if someone can point me to proofs of the opposite :-))
>
> > There would be a number of tasks for gathering/processing
> > data from sensors, wireless interfaces and sending messages over the
> > truck's CAN bus.
> >
> > Which version of Orocos should we start off with? I see on the website
> > that Orocos RTT 2.0.0 should have been released yesterday, but there is
> > no information whether this has actually happened.
>
> It will take a week or two more.
>
> > I have used RTT 1.6.X and 1.8.X for earlier projects,
> Also on Powerpc? If so, it would be nice to report failure/success to the
> developers mailinglist from time to time.
>
> > but having hung around on this mailing
> > list for a while, I gathered an impression that RTT 2.0.0 was the new
> > big thing and might be worth waiting for.
>
> I think so. For example, the data gathering component that you were
> mentioning before: we are having students using RTT 2.0 (pre-releases) to
> do a "service and plug-in based" implementation of a similar functionality
> on top of EtherCat. That implementation (not yet finished, debugged, let
> alone released as "stable"; but many discussions have already been held
> about in on the developers mailing list) could serve as a starting point
> for your application goals...
>
> > We really cannot wait more
> > than a couple of weeks to get started, and do expect the new release to
> > be bug-free enough to not get in the way of what we are actually trying
> > to do (driving the truck).
>
> Well, a free software project does not really work this way, does it... :-)
>
> > So, should we wait for RTT-2.0.0 or start with the most recent 1.X
> > release? I'd welcome feedback and suggestions from the community,
> > especially developers and those who've test-driven the RTT-2.0.0 betas.
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Sagar
>
> Herman
> --
> Orocos-Users mailing list
> Orocos-Users [..] ...
> http://lists.mech.kuleuven.be/mailman/listinfo/orocos-users
>

Which orocos version for new project?

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Philippe Hamelin wrote:

> +1 for PowerPC. We are using Orocos RTT 1.X on a PowerPC platform (Xilinx
> Virtex-5 FXT FPGA with embedded PPC440 Cores). Altough we didn't made yet
> exhaustive development on this platform, it works well for now (including the
> Corba transport layer). With a bit of work, we were able to cross-compile
> OmniORB, Boost, RTT and OCL using the ELDK-ppc4xx toolchain.

Good to know that Powerpc is still actively used, thanks for the information!
Personally, I've always liked its architecture (evolved from the 68xxx line
of processors) _a lot_ more than the "industry standard" x86 :-(

Herman
>
> 2010/8/17 Herman Bruyninckx <Herman [dot] Bruyninckx [..] ...>
> On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Sagar Behere wrote:
>
> > I am at PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
> > Stockholm, Sweden. We have just started a new project for taking
> part in
> > the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (http://www.gcdc.net). In
> brief,
> > it involves making a real truck drive autonomously in city and
> highway
> > traffic. The project has just started and will finish in March
> 2011.
> >
> > I am thinking of using orocos RTT on an embedded powerpc platform
> for
> > this project.
>
> Powerpc is not a very actively supported hardware platform...
> Because there
> are not that many users known to me that use Powerpc. (I would be
> thrilled
> if someone can point me to proofs of the opposite :-))
>
> > There would be a number of tasks for gathering/processing
> > data from sensors, wireless interfaces and sending messages over
> the
> > truck's CAN bus.
> >
> > Which version of Orocos should we start off with? I see on the
> website
> > that Orocos RTT 2.0.0 should have been released yesterday, but
> there is
> > no information whether this has actually happened.
>
> It will take a week or two more.
>
> > I have used RTT 1.6.X and 1.8.X for earlier projects,
> Also on Powerpc? If so, it would be nice to report failure/success
> to the
> developers mailinglist from time to time.
>
> > but having hung around on this mailing
> > list for a while, I gathered an impression that RTT 2.0.0 was the
> new
> > big thing and might be worth waiting for.
>
> I think so. For example, the data gathering component that you were
> mentioning before: we are having students using RTT 2.0
> (pre-releases) to
> do a "service and plug-in based" implementation of a similar
> functionality
> on top of EtherCat. That implementation (not yet finished, debugged,
> let
> alone released as "stable"; but many discussions have already been
> held
> about in on the developers mailing list) could serve as a starting
> point
> for your application goals...
>
> > We really cannot wait more
> > than a couple of weeks to get started, and do expect the new
> release to
> > be bug-free enough to not get in the way of what we are actually
> trying
> > to do (driving the truck).
>
> Well, a free software project does not really work this way, does
> it... :-)
>
> > So, should we wait for RTT-2.0.0 or start with the most recent 1.X
> > release? I'd welcome feedback and suggestions from the community,
> > especially developers and those who've test-driven the RTT-2.0.0
> betas.
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Sagar
>
> Herman
> --
> Orocos-Users mailing list
> Orocos-Users [..] ...
> http://lists.mech.kuleuven.be/mailman/listinfo/orocos-users
>
>
>
>

--
K.U.Leuven, Mechanical Eng., Mechatronics & Robotics Research Group
<http://people.mech.kuleuven.be/~bruyninc> Tel: +32 16 328056
EURON Coordinator (European Robotics Research Network) <http://www.euron.org>
Open Realtime Control Services <http://www.orocos.org>
Associate Editor JOSER <http://www.joser.org>, IJRR <http://www.ijrr.org>

Which orocos version for new project?

On Aug 17, 2010, at 10:48 , Herman Bruyninckx wrote:

> On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Sagar Behere wrote:
>
>> I am at PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
>> Stockholm, Sweden. We have just started a new project for taking part in
>> the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (http://www.gcdc.net). In brief,
>> it involves making a real truck drive autonomously in city and highway
>> traffic. The project has just started and will finish in March 2011.
>>
>> I am thinking of using orocos RTT on an embedded powerpc platform for
>> this project.
>
> Powerpc is not a very actively supported hardware platform... Because there
> are not that many users known to me that use Powerpc. (I would be thrilled
> if someone can point me to proofs of the opposite :-))
>
>> There would be a number of tasks for gathering/processing
>> data from sensors, wireless interfaces and sending messages over the
>> truck's CAN bus.
>>
>> Which version of Orocos should we start off with? I see on the website
>> that Orocos RTT 2.0.0 should have been released yesterday, but there is
>> no information whether this has actually happened.
>
> It will take a week or two more.
>
>> I have used RTT 1.6.X and 1.8.X for earlier projects,
> Also on Powerpc? If so, it would be nice to report failure/success to the
> developers mailinglist from time to time.
>
>> but having hung around on this mailing
>> list for a while, I gathered an impression that RTT 2.0.0 was the new
>> big thing and might be worth waiting for.
>
> I think so. For example, the data gathering component that you were
> mentioning before: we are having students using RTT 2.0 (pre-releases) to
> do a "service and plug-in based" implementation of a similar functionality
> on top of EtherCat. That implementation (not yet finished, debugged, let
> alone released as "stable"; but many discussions have already been held
> about in on the developers mailing list) could serve as a starting point
> for your application goals...

Yes, but v1 has some features that v2 does not. As I mentioned previously, not a one of my customer's systems will work with v2 now because of this very issue. And this won't get solved in the "next couple of weeks" I believe ...

>> We really cannot wait more
>> than a couple of weeks to get started, and do expect the new release to
>> be bug-free enough to not get in the way of what we are actually trying
>> to do (driving the truck).
>
> Well, a free software project does not really work this way, does it... :-)

I agree with Herman. Also, IMHO if you want bug free then don't go with any brand new version. Early adopters spend time debugging .... :-)

Stephen

Which orocos version for new project?

On 08/17/2010 04:51 PM, S Roderick wrote:
> On Aug 17, 2010, at 10:48 , Herman Bruyninckx wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Sagar Behere wrote:
>>
>>> I am at PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
>>> Stockholm, Sweden. We have just started a new project for taking part in
>>> the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (http://www.gcdc.net). In brief,
>>> it involves making a real truck drive autonomously in city and highway
>>> traffic. The project has just started and will finish in March 2011.
>>>
>>> I am thinking of using orocos RTT on an embedded powerpc platform for
>>> this project.
>>
>> Powerpc is not a very actively supported hardware platform... Because there
>> are not that many users known to me that use Powerpc. (I would be thrilled
>> if someone can point me to proofs of the opposite :-))

I understand. But we prefer to use this platform unless things break
completely. The reason is that we have a vendor-developed hardware kit
with the processor board, a stock vehicle gearbox controller and other
automotive specific electronics all nicely working together.

>>> I have used RTT 1.6.X and 1.8.X for earlier projects,
>> Also on Powerpc? If so, it would be nice to report failure/success to the
>> developers mailinglist from time to time.

Yes, on powerpc. Specifically, RTT-1.8.X and OCL on a Virtex-4 fpga with
a ppc405 processor. Initially we used the gnulinux target and an year
later, the Xenomai target. Cross-compiling all the dependencies was a
major pain, but it essentially worked. (We couldn't get omniORB/ ACE-TAO
or the xerces library to compile, but rtt works without those.) This was
mentioned on the mailing list
http://orocos.org/forum/orocos/orocos-users/orocos-virtex-4-fpga

> Yes, but v1 has some features that v2 does not.
> And this won't get solved in the "next couple of weeks" I believe ...
<sni

>> Well, a free software project does not really work this way, does it... :-)
>
> I agree with Herman. Also, IMHO if you want bug free then don't go with any brand new version.

I agree on the free software implications :)
Guess rtt-1.10 would be a safer starting point.

Thanks,
Sagar

Which orocos version for new project?

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Sagar Behere wrote:

> On 08/17/2010 04:51 PM, S Roderick wrote:
>> On Aug 17, 2010, at 10:48 , Herman Bruyninckx wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Sagar Behere wrote:
>>>
>>>> I am at PhD student at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
>>>> Stockholm, Sweden. We have just started a new project for taking part in
>>>> the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (http://www.gcdc.net). In brief,
>>>> it involves making a real truck drive autonomously in city and highway
>>>> traffic. The project has just started and will finish in March 2011.
>>>>
>>>> I am thinking of using orocos RTT on an embedded powerpc platform for
>>>> this project.
>>>
>>> Powerpc is not a very actively supported hardware platform... Because there
>>> are not that many users known to me that use Powerpc. (I would be thrilled
>>> if someone can point me to proofs of the opposite :-))
>
> I understand. But we prefer to use this platform unless things break
> completely.

You should not interpret my remark about the Powerpc platform as a
suggestion to move to a better-supported platform. On the contrary: having
a dedicated group stress test Orocos/RTT on powerpc would be a very Good
Thing :-)

> The reason is that we have a vendor-developed hardware kit
> with the processor board, a stock vehicle gearbox controller and other
> automotive specific electronics all nicely working together.
>
>>>> I have used RTT 1.6.X and 1.8.X for earlier projects,
>>> Also on Powerpc? If so, it would be nice to report failure/success to the
>>> developers mailinglist from time to time.
>
> Yes, on powerpc. Specifically, RTT-1.8.X and OCL on a Virtex-4 fpga with
> a ppc405 processor. Initially we used the gnulinux target and an year
> later, the Xenomai target. Cross-compiling all the dependencies was a
> major pain, but it essentially worked. (We couldn't get omniORB/ ACE-TAO
> or the xerces library to compile, but rtt works without those.) This was
> mentioned on the mailing list
> http://orocos.org/forum/orocos/orocos-users/orocos-virtex-4-fpga

I remember! But I did not make the connection with this post :-)
Maybe your efforts could lead to some patches to the RTT code...? :-)

>> Yes, but v1 has some features that v2 does not.
>> And this won't get solved in the "next couple of weeks" I believe ...
> <sni

>>> Well, a free software project does not really work this way, does it... :-)
>>
>> I agree with Herman. Also, IMHO if you want bug free then don't go with
>> any brand new version.
>
> I agree on the free software implications :)
> Guess rtt-1.10 would be a safer starting point.

It's up to you to balance "stability" versus "improved functionality" :-)
Of course, our hope is that 2.0 certainly brings the latter, and gradually
also the former! :-)

Good luck!

Herman