[Rock-dev] Fwd: RE: Avalon's Middleware

Tue Aug 14 12:48:40 CEST 2012

Hello together,

I think i move this to the ML, because i still couldn't answer all 
questions.
Maybe one of the more-active developers could take over (or extend) the 
"core" questions below?

Greetings,
Matthias

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	RE: Avalon's Middleware
Date: 	Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:15:34 +0200
From: 	Jan Sliwka <sliwka at cmre.nato.int>
To: 	'Matthias Goldhoorn' <matthias.goldhoorn at dfki.de>

I am searching for an (new) comm-framework for our particular project which
could become THE framework for all the nurc vehicles in general.
In order to do so, as you said, I am collecting information for a
state-of-the-art report. If you have access to report like this, I'd
appreciate to have it.
I took a look into rock and orocos. I think the documentation and tutorials
you provide on your webpage is well structured and complete but in my
opinion they are hard to follow for someone who wants to know about rock
without necessarily having it installed on the computer and as a consequence
not able to test the lines of code you provide. Maybe you could add a small
paragraph to your webpage about how rock works in a simplified (short!!!)
version with lots of diagrams (like it is the case for the orocos doc but
maybe even simpler...), what a user needs to know (ruby, c++), provide
templates for users to fill with code... you should maybe not assume that
people know or should know orocos (since orocos is another sea of code if
you know what I mean). Or maybe it is impossible to separate orocos and
rock?...I mean making a full abstraction out of it.
What I like in your framework is the real-time aspect of orocos and the
tools you provide (little bit like ROS but more AUV oriented).
I have some questions.
Question: do you provide a pdf version of the documentation for rock like
for orocos?
Question: are the tools you provide tested and reliable? Is rock used by a
university or other institute other than DFKI?
Question: is it possible to use rock without knowing how to use orocos while
keeping the real-time aspect of the execution.
Question: can you use the statecharts (based on orocos statecharts) using
rock only?
Question: does rock/orocos comply to a specific standard
Question: what is the license of rock/orocos (It is GPLv2 I think but
correct me if I am mistaken)
That's all for now, I am sorry to ask those questions but orocos is a good
but complex tool and I find simplifying it (using rock) a good idea.
Looking forward to your answer,
And greetings from sunny Italy ;) (viva the air conditioning)
Jan

-----Original Message-----
From: Matthias Goldhoorn [mailto:matthias.goldhoorn at dfki.de]
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 9:14 AM
To: Jan Sliwka
Subject: Re: Avalon's Middleware

how's going,

did you already take a look into "rock"?, got problems or is something
unclear?

Are you searching for an (new) comm-framework for the nurc vehicles in
general, or do you only collecting information for an state-of-the-art
report?

Greetings from sunny Bremen.
Matthias

On 09.08.2012 10:00, Jan Sliwka wrote:
>  Thanks a lot!!!
>
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: Matthias Goldhoorn [mailto:matthias.goldhoorn at dfki.de]
>  Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2012 8:26 AM
>  To: Jan Sliwka
>  Cc: sliwka at cmre.nato.int; malgorzata.goldhoorn at dfki.de
>  Subject: Re: Avalon's Middleware
>
>  Am 08.08.2012 16:49, schrieb Jan Sliwka:
>>  Hi Matthias,
>>  I now work on middlewares for underwater robots at the NURC. I
>>  remember you were developing one in DFKI but I forgot the name.
>>  Could you give me some references and links where I can find more
>>  information about it?
>>  Say hello from me to Malgosia,
>>  thanks,
>>  Jan
>  Hi Jan, nice to hear from you.
>  Greetings of course back from Malgosia.
>
>  So regarding the "Middleware" or communication framework.
>
>  The Framework is called Rock-Robotics (www.rock-robotics.org) it's an
>  layer ontop of Orocos-RTT Tollchain.
>  You can have RealTimeSupport but you not enforced to add an RTT Kernel.
>  Rock proides a lot of typical driver like for the BlueView Sonar,
>  Several Tritech devices and other stuff.
>
>  http://rock-robotics.org/stable/pkg/index.html (search for driver for
e.G.).
>  The Repositorys of the drivers (more or less all) are located on spacegit:
>
>  http://gitorious.org/rock-drivers
>
>  These drivers are (on this layer) Framework-Independently written so
>  that they can be used also on other frameworks or even simple
>  programs, the build simply as an library that can be used everywhere.
>
>  If yourneed any other information about rock or the capabilities, we
>  are providing an mailinglist that's queite friendly and active. Since
>  i'm also an rock-developer i got these mails too. But if you like you
>  could contact me private too ;).
>
>  Conrats's for you NURC Contract i aos thougt about sending an CV to
>  the nurc in the future.
>
>  Freetings from Cold northern Germany,
>  Matthias
>
>
>
>
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