Recent changes to support-requests

General Code & Environment Question

Kesh Rao — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:47:07 -0000

Hi,
I'm a graduate student working with the NAO robots. Part of my experiment involves a type of reinforcement learning paradigm where I would like the robot to reach to a ball in space. The trouble is that I need this reach to be performed thousands of times and so, I would need some kind of simulated environment to model the problem. I first started using NAOSim because the software came with the purchase of the NAO robot. But the problem we're having with the NAOSim software is that we have no way of controlling specific objects using our python scripts. For example, at the start of every trial, I would like to reset the environment and get/set position of a ball that I would like the NAO to reach to. No having this functionality in the API makes the process of automation very difficult.
My question about SimSpark is two-fold. The first being, can I create a similar environment whereby I can just place a ball in space have the NAO robot reach to it? Would i be able to do this using a script? My second question is regarding the code associated with programming SimSpark. I read that SimSpark is programmed using Ruby. Does that mean that I would have to write scripts in Ruby to control the simulated robot? All my code right now is in Python and I can control the real NAO robots using that code. Is the SimSpark API python friendly?
Thanks for your help!

CMake does not run correctly

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:51:32 -0000

Hi,

I'm a researcher in a humanoid simulation development tool in Portugal.
I was trying to install the simspark and I could not get the cmake to work. Hope you can help, thanks.

Best Regards,
Jorge Graça

Console output:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

C:\Documents and Settings\Project Lab PC 2>path=%path%;C:\Program Files\CMake 2.
8\bin

C:\Documents and Settings\Project Lab PC 2>cd C:\Documents and Settings\Project
Lab PC 2\Desktop\simspark-0.2.1\build

C:\Documents and Settings\Project Lab PC 2\Desktop\simspark-0.2.1\build>cmake ..

CMake Warning at CMakeLists.txt:3 (project):
To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the
compiler cl from the command line. This environment does not contain
INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to
work.

-- The CXX compiler identification is unknown
-- The C compiler identification is unknown
CMake Warning at C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/Platform/Win
dows-cl.cmake:28 (ENABLE_LANGUAGE):
To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the
compiler cl from the command line. This environment does not contain
INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to
work.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeCXXInformation.cmake:5
7 (INCLUDE)
CMakeLists.txt:3 (project)

CMake Error: your RC compiler: "CMAKE_RC_COMPILER-NOTFOUND" was not found. Ple
ase set CMAKE_RC_COMPILER to a valid compiler path or name.
-- Check for CL compiler version
-- Check for CL compiler version - failed
-- Check if this is a free VC compiler
-- Check if this is a free VC compiler - yes
-- Using FREE VC TOOLS, NO DEBUG available
-- Check for working CXX compiler: cl
CMake Warning at CMakeLists.txt:2 (PROJECT):
To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the
compiler cl from the command line. This environment does not contain
INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to
work.

CMake Warning at C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/Platform/Win
dows-cl.cmake:28 (ENABLE_LANGUAGE):
To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the
compiler cl from the command line. This environment does not contain
INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to
work.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeCXXInformation.cmake:5
7 (INCLUDE)
CMakeLists.txt:2 (PROJECT)

CMake Error at C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeRCInforma
tion.cmake:22 (GET_FILENAME_COMPONENT):
get_filename_component called with incorrect number of arguments
Call Stack (most recent call first):
C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/Platform/Windows-cl.cmake:2
8 (ENABLE_LANGUAGE)
C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeCXXInformation.cmake:5
7 (INCLUDE)
CMakeLists.txt:2 (PROJECT)

CMake Error: CMAKE_RC_COMPILER not set, after EnableLanguage
CMake Error: your CXX compiler: "cl" was not found. Please set CMAKE_CXX_COMPI
LER to a valid compiler path or name.
CMake Error: Internal CMake error, TryCompile configure of cmake failed
-- Check for working CXX compiler: cl -- broken
CMake Error at C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeTestCXXCo
mpiler.cmake:45 (MESSAGE):
The C++ compiler "cl" is not able to compile a simple test program.

It fails with the following output:

CMake will not be able to correctly generate this project.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
CMakeLists.txt:3 (project)

CMake Error: your CXX compiler: "cl" was not found. Please set CMAKE_CXX_COMPI
LER to a valid compiler path or name.
CMake Error: your C compiler: "cl" was not found. Please set CMAKE_C_COMPILER
to a valid compiler path or name.
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

Angular Change or Applied Force

Amir Homayoun Javadi — Mon, 24 May 2010 04:07:06 -0000

In the SimSpark User's Manual 1.2 (January 2010) it is mentioned that the input to hinge joint and universal joint effectors is change in angle of the joint. Considering the goal of the simulation, simulation of a real robot, requesting angular changes as input seems unrealistic and it introduces an unknown parameter in the model, maximum angular force/torque. Not having the maximum allowable induced force/torque on each individual joint the modeling of the robot becomes impossible. I understand that changing from "angular changes" to "angular force" is a radical change but I believe it is necessary. Specially in real physical applications the inputs to actuators and drivers is force rather than change or displacement.

Setting the installation prefix

A. Bram Neijt — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:57:38 -0000

With autotools you can set the installation prefix using --prefix. How is this done with cmake?