Latest entries for tag 'release'
Fawkes 0.4.2 released
The new GCC version 4.6.0 uncovers more issues than previous GCC releases. With this release, these have been fixed. These bugs did not manifest in typical operation. Additionally, Linux 2.6.38 drops support for Video4Linux version 1, and thus its (non-)existence must be detected. On newer kernels, only the Video4Linux version 2 interface is built now. The issues had been fixed in the master branch a while ago.
These fixes have now been backported to the 0.4 branch, in particular for the upcoming Fedora 15 release. It was detected by our continuous integration build hosts.
Posted by Tim Niemueller on February 22, 2011 12:05
Fawkes 0.4.1 released
In the last few months some minor improvements have been made that we want to share with this release. In particular packaging Fawkes for Fedora shed light on some shortcomings.- Manual pages
- All console and GUI tools now come with manual pages. They describe the available options more in-depth than the already existent usage instructions that you get when calling a tool with the "-h" parameter.
- Configuration files in user home directories
- Until now Fawkes expected a central configuration directory writable by everybody running Fawkes on the system. This is typical on real robots, but this can pose problems on multi-user systems, e.g. during development or using simulation environments. Now, the configuration can still be read from this directory, but information is stored in a .fawkes directory in the user's home directory.
- Enforcing undefined symbols
- On shared libraries and plugins undefined symbols were not enforced. This is the default behavior of the GNU linker. This can lead to plugins which cannot be loaded later. To uncover this kind of error earlier we now enforce all symbols.
- Fixes
- This release contains some minor bug fixes and adjustements for the latest version of libmicrohttpd.
Posted by Tim Niemueller on January 9, 2011 19:55
Fedora now includes Fawkes
Recently we proposed Fawkes for inclusion into Fedora. The review has completed and the package has been accepted! Fawkes and its development environment can now be installed out of the box, see the download page for instructions.
On a related note Fawkes has been chosen by the Fedora Robotics SIG to play a major role in the Fedora Robotics Spin along with Player and Stage. The main idea of this spin is to have software on a LiveDVD providing a ready-to-use robotic simulation environment, with a demo application to introduce users step by step to the available software. Additionally as much robotics related software as possible, ranging from packages for hardware access (laser scanners, robotic arms) and robotic middleware frameworks, to full-blown simulation environments and libraries relevant for robotic applications like vision processing or task control will be added. The Robotics Spin has been proposed as a Fedora 15 Feature.
For this LiveDVD Fawkes will be used in combination with Player and Stage to provide the environment for the demonstration application. In particular, the behavior engine based on Lua will be the tools used to guide the user to complete tasks of increasing complexity within the Stage simulation environment. Among others like Player/Stage and the RoboCup 3D Soccer Server Fawkes will be one of the highlighted robot software packages.
Posted by Tim Niemueller on November 16, 2010 18:09
Fedora review request filed
A review request has been filed to include Fawkes in Fedora. This is a major step and the driving factor for the system wide installation support which was added in Fawkes 0.4.
Once the package is included in Fedora, it will provide its users with the ability to run Fawkes out-of-the-box and start developing quickly. It is also one of the corner stones for the planned Fedora Robotics LiveCD by the Fedora Robotics SIG. It is envisioned to contain a complete simulation environment based on Fawkes, Player, and Stage. A demo application will introduce newcomers step by step to robotics and the related software systems.
Posted by Tim Niemueller on November 1, 2010 20:45
Fawkes 0.4 released
After one year of development and several RoboCup events to harden the system we are happy to release the next major release of Fawkes. Here is some info about the improvements compared to Fawkes 0.3:- System-wide installation
- The build system has been extended to provide support for system-wide installation. With this Fawkes can be packaged for direct installation on Linux distributions. Packages for Fedora are work-in-progress.
- Blackboard logging
- Plugins and tools have been written to log data written to the blackboard, replay and view the logs. This is important to record test data and later work on this data.
- Extended hardware support
- New hardware has been made available. A special camera module provides access to the extended functionality of the AlliedVision Pike camera. The SwissRanger SR4000 can now be used as Firevision camera to access depth images. And finally the Hokuyo URG laser range finders can now be used with the laser plugin and the plugin can provide multiple laser sources at the same time.
- Blackboard interface timestamps
- Blackboard interfaces now have a modification timestamp which is set either automatically by the writer or to a user-supplied value. Interfaces can be queried if data has been modified since last read.
- MSL2010 Refbox and SPL GameController 7 protocols
- The refboxcomm plugin can now communicate with the MSL2010 refbox and with the SPL GameController v7.
- World Info Broadcasting
- The world model can now broadcast world information instead of multicasting, which in some situations is more reliably and a requirement for some RoboCup leagues.
- XML-RPC plugin
- A demonstration plugin to access Fawkes via XML-RPC has been added.
- Line detection in laser data
- For demonstration purposes a plugin has been added to detect straight lines in 2D laser data.
Posted by Tim Niemueller on August 17, 2010 05:51
Final review of upcoming release 0.4
About half a year ago we made the initial Fawkes 0.3 release. Now we are close to releasing the next version 0.4, which contains several improvements and new functionality. For a developer's summary please have a look at the mailing list post. The code is currently under final review in the current-pre-0.4 branch, where all relevant feature branches have been merged and final fixes and cleanups have been applied. Everybody is invited to have a look at the code and give review suggestions before the release in about a week. Initial packages for Fedora have been built and with the release we will likely present binary packages for easy installation for the first time.Posted by Tim Niemueller on February 4, 2010 16:08
Fawkes initial public release
After RoboCup 2006, when the AllemaniACs of the Knowledge-Based Systems Group started to work on a new mid-size soccer robot, the decision was made to write a new software system. After almost three years it has evolved into a versatile robot software framework used on different platforms, real robots and in simulation.
Today we release the software as Open Source Software to the general public, in the hope that it will be useful to others and to build a community to create a joined effort to further improve and expand Fawkes. The now released software version 0.3 is a particular milestone for the project and its direction. It's an experimental base that we will now continue to improve making it easier to use Fawkes and to extend it by more robotics applications and tools. You are welcome to join the team!
Posted by Tim Niemueller on August 13, 2009 15:51
