What's new in MORSE 1.4?
========================
General
-------
- `Numpy `_ is now needed for Morse. It is used in
several places where computations using mathutils is not precise enough
(float vs double precision).
- Time management has been improved in various way. A **morse_sync** tool has
been introduced to improve precision and timing of high-frequency components
(`#683 `_).
If available in Blender (Blender > 2.77), it is also possible to accelerate
or slow-down the simulation (`#388 `_).
Moreover, Morse now try to compute automatically the right time settings.
If you meet any problem related to time, make sure to read the
:doc:`dev/time_event` and / or report issue to the Morse project.
Components
----------
Robots
++++++
- the :doc:`user/robots/human` in MORSE has been entirely rewritten. The new
human model is much simpler, yet much nicer (in particular, it features mesh
skinning for good looking animations). On the downside, the interactive mode
is gone for now. Depending on interest, it can be revived in a future version
(possibly through external scripts, for added flexibility).
Actuators
+++++++++
- the semantic of the :doc:`user/actuators/waypoint` and
:doc:`user/actuators/destination` actuators has slightly changed: once the
destination is reached, they do not attempt anymore to actively stay at this
position. This permits another motion actuator to 'take over' the control of
the robot. The previous behaviour is still desirable in certain cases (notably
for flying robots), and can be re-enabled by setting the property
``RemainAtDestination`` to true:
``motion.properties(RemainAtDestination=True)``. This option is also added to
the :doc:`user/actuators/rotorcraft_waypoint` actuator, but it defaults to
true (hence, no behaviour change compared to MORSE 1.3).
- the :doc:`user/actuators/orientation` actuator has been enhanced to possibly
work more realistically, by limiting the speed of the rotations. The default
is still to go directly to the desired orientation.
- The :doc:`user/actuators/keyboard` and :doc:`user/actuators/joystick`
actuators do not call anymore the robot ``apply_speed`` method with values set
to zero when no input is received. The previous behaviour prevented them to be
used in combination with another motion actuator (they would always overwrite
other motion commands with zeros).
- The :doc:`user/actuators/armature` actuator has two new services
(``rotate_joints`` and ``translate_joints``) that let the user set the
rotations/translations of only a subset of the armature's joints by providing
a custom mapping ``{joint name: value}``.
- The :doc:`user/actuators/rotorcraft_attitude` has been extended to be able
to control the rotorcraft in yaw rate or in absolute yaw (using the
``YawRateControl`` property). If it is the case, you can configure if you
want to configure to use ``normal yaw`` or ``north`` using the
property ``UseAngleAgainstNorth``. Last, you can configure the actuator to
use a linear or quadratic thrust model using ``LinearThrust``.
- Introduce the :doc:`user/actuators/drag` "actuator" which allows to simulate
the drag (air resistance) force opposite to the move of the robot. It allows
more realistic simulation (if desired).
- Introduce the :doc:`user/actuators/external_force` actuator which allows to
apply external force (typically force from the environment such as wind) to
a robot. It has the same interface than :doc:`user/actuators/force_torque`,
but apply force in the global frame.
- Introduce the :doc:`user/actuators/quadrotor_dynamic_control` actuator which
allows to control a quadrotor from the speed of its four engine, using
simple dynamic equation.
Sensors
+++++++
- **longitude**, **latitude** and **altitude** are not anymore properties of
:doc:`user/sensors/gps` but must be set at the environment level. Moreover,
the property **angle_against_north** allows to configure the angle between
the X-axis and the geographic north (must be positive when the Blender
X-axis is East of true North, negative if is West of true North).
- Introduce the new high-level sensor :doc:`user/sensors/attitude`, allowing
to compute the attitude of the system
- Introduce the sensor :doc:`user/sensors/magnetometer`, which allows to
compute the magnetic field vector of the Earth.
- Extend the sensor :doc:`user/sensors/imu`, to return also the magnetic field
vector.
- Fixed the :doc:`user/sensors/collision` sensor: it now detects collision only
when it is actually colliding (before, any object in a 1x1x1m box around the
sensor would return a collision). While here, improve the documentation with a
complete example.
- Introduce the sensor :doc:`user/sensors/airspeed`, which allows to compute
the speed of a vehicle relative to the air.
Modifiers
+++++++++
- Introduce ECEF, Geodetic, Geocentric modifiers, allowing to convert
coordinates from Blender world to ECEF-r or Geodetic or Geocentric
coordinates (and vice-versa). It should improve interoperability with flight
systems in general.
- Introduce Feet modifier, to convert imperial units to meter buts (and
vice-versa)
Middlewares
-----------
General
+++++++
- Introduce a binding for the `Mavlink protocol
`_, easing the interoperability of
Morse with a lot of free autopilots / architectures.
ROS
+++
- Some ROS 'housekeeping' has been performed in this release, including
removing the need for ``rospkg`` (easier installation!), removing ROS interface
with the non-standard (and unused?) ``JointPositions`` message and removing
references ``roslib.load_manifest()``, a memory of rosbuild-era.
HLA
+++
- Handle automatically the case where attributed published by Morse are not
owned by it.
- Allow to specify a ``stop_time`` for the simulation (in simulated seconds)
- Make ``lookahead`` configurable for the Morse federate
YARP
++++
- Add an adapter for :doc:`user/sensors/depth_camera`.
Builder API
-----------
API addition
++++++++++++
- It is now possible to import environment composed of multiples scenes. The
user should select which is the ``main_scene`` when importing the environment.
Moreover, a method ``Environment.set_background_scene`` has been added to configure the
scene to use in background (`#651 `_).
- The method ``bpymorse.set_speed``, used to changed the frequency of Morse
main loop is now deprecated in favor of ``Environment.simulator_frequency``.
- The method ``Environmement.set_time_scale`` allows to accelerate or
slow-down the simulation (`#388 `_).
- The new method ``Environment.use_vsync`` allows to control the vsync
parameter
Pymorse
-------
- Robots created in loop are handled smartly. They are still usable as
previously, but it is also possible to access them using the list foos (if
your robot name is foo) (`#358 `_).
- Streams are now created lazily, fixing control with large number of robots /
sensors (`#626 `_).
Previous releases
-----------------
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 1
releasenotes/1.3
releasenotes/1.2
releasenotes/1.1
releasenotes/1.0
releasenotes/0.6
releasenotes/0.5
releasenotes/0.4