iCub Software 1.8.0 Released

[drdanz]

iCub 1.8.0 was released today and is now available for download at: https://github.com/robotology/icub-main/releases/. This release is a feature release and introduces several new features and important changes since iCub 1.6.

Important Changes

Configuration Files

• changed file names pattern: now all file has following pattern:
  body_part-ebX-jA_B-type_of_file.xml

• in files body_part-ebX-jA_B-mc.xml:

  • added TIMEOUT group with velocity parameter.
  • added CONTROL group for new management of PID configuration. With this
    new feature, the user can write more than one pid configuration in the file
    and can select one by writing its name in CONTROL group.

• in files body_part-ebX-jA_B-mc_service.xml:

  • in ENCODER1 and ENCODER2 groups added resolution and numofnoisebits
    parameters.
  • removed group CONTROLLER. The coupling matrices have been moved in
    machanical file.

• in files body_part-ebX-jA_B-mec.xml:

  • added following parameters in GENERAL group
    • fullscalePWM: Value of fullscale pwm. This values is equal for all
      joints, becuse it depend on type of board, ems, mc4plus, etc.
    • ampsToSensor: Scale value for the ampsToSensor conversion factor.
    • Gearbox_M2J: This is the total reduction factor between joint and
      encoder.
    • Gearbox_E2J: This is the reduction factor between the joint and
      the encoder at joint. (Usually it is 1)
    • useMotorSpeedFbk: Indicate if the motor controller uses feedback from
      motors to compute speed. Allowed values are [0, 1]
  • added group 2FOC wich contains all parameter regarding 2FOC board
    configuration. These parameters have been moved from GENERAL group to
    2FOC group. Parameters about 2foc configuration are:
    • HasHallSensor: Indicates if hall sensors are connected to 2FOC board
    • HasTempSensor: Indicates if temperature ensor are connected to 2FOC
      board
    • HasRotorEncoder: Indicates if rotor has encoder
    • HasRotorEncoderIndex: Indicates if the rotor encoder has index
    • HasSpeedEncoder: It is as an alternative to rotorEncoder. It is not
      used for FOC controller.
    • RotorIndexOffset: Rotor index offset between first electric sector and
      encoder index [degree]
    • MotorPoles: Number of poles of motor
  • added group COUPLINGS; it contains matrixJ2M (joint to motor),
    matrixM2J (motor to joint), matrixE2J (Encoder to joint) parameters.
  • added JOINTSET_CFG group. it contains specification of each joint set.
  • added LIMITS group. Its parameters are :
    • hardwareJntPosMax: Max hardware position of joint [expressed in
      degrees]. Due to mechanical constraints.
    • hardwareJntPosMin: Min hardware position of joint [expressed in
      degrees]. Due to mechanical constraints.
    • rotorPosMin: (moved from body_part-ebX-jA_B-mc.xml file)
    • rotorPosMax: (moved from body_part-ebX-jA_B-mc.xml file)

[traversaro]

Please note that, following #173, if you want to use the iCub software version 1.8.0 on a physical iCub mounting a pc104 board, you will need to update the OS running on the pc104 to the 6.0 image based on Debian Jessie. Please refer to http://wiki.icub.org/wiki/The_Linux_on_the_pc104 for more information .