The IRE Project Interactive Robot Environment Spring 2004

The Project: Description of Problem/Solution Currently difficult to debug robots –Interaction is via MFC dialogs only –Configuration/action is via many nested menus No explicit technology to integrate the various systems Solution: –Create an interactive scripting shell –Allow integration by scripting –Provide convenient debugging env. with this shell

The Project: Who Dr. Peter Kazanzides (mentor/MRC expert) Andy LaMora Chris Abidin Anton Deguet (CIS library consultant) Ankur Kapoor (Robot/MRC consultant)

The Project: Features Co-exists with a C++ application Command shell –Works standalone (perhaps in a GUI ala Matlab) –Can be invoked from within an executing program Workspace environment –IRE allows developer to save data and state to persistent files, which can be re-loaded –Error logs and Event logs are viewable separately, and can be queried –Exception handling Safety –“hot-keys” to “kill” hardware power Extensible!!!! –C++ developers expose functionality for use by IRE

The Project: Goals Develop Python-based programming environment to permit easy prototyping and debugging of the multi-modal ERC technologies, which will: –Create a virtual workspace for interacting with integrated systems and persisting data and state –Create a command shell feature to allow debugging/development from within executing C++ applications –Be extensible –Be Open-Source Implement a “real” tracker-robot integration task

The Plan: Overview Discovery & Design: February Prototyping: February-March Alpha/Beta Releases: Late March/April Implementation: April Release: May

The Plan: Discovery & Design Academic/Industrial Literature Review –Who’s done this before, and how’d they do it? User interviews (Dr.s K and T, Ming Li, Ankur Kapoor, etc) Interview Method: –How do you do what you do –Why do you do it that way –What annoys you the most –What current features do you appreciate the most –What do you wish you could do instead?

The Plan: Discovery & Design Resource Discovery: Hardware –Robots –Trackers –Haptic Devices –Cameras Resource Discovery: Software –Robot control library (MRC) –Tracker Library (cisTracker) –Data Object library (cisVecs & co.) –Numerical Library (cisNumerical) –AND: Are these libs sufficient to meet our functionality needs? E.g. Serialization!

The Plan: Discovery & Design Design of Interactive Language: –Functionally similar to IBM AML –Create native data objects? –Create native methods for …? Logging Saving workspace state TBD –Special syntax for logic control (prob. not)?

The Plan: Discovery & Design Technology Discovery/Selection –C++ Control-layer applications –SWIG Wrappering technology –CMake builds projects, and with Swig automatically wraps objects –Python elegant object orientated application and scripting language –TCL interpreted scripting language, used with Slicer, cumbersome –CVS Repository code maintenance/version control

The Plan: Overview Discovery & Design: February Prototyping: February-March Alpha/Beta Releases: Late March/April Implementation: April Release: May

The Plan: Prototyping Wrapping Experiments –What happens to pointers? –Do we get copies where we expect references? –*Can* we wrap everything we need? (again, serialization) Command Shell Experiments –Can we “pause” a program and “drop” into a Python command shell? –Does the shell “see” the data and state environment that we expect? Interface Tools –Can we construct a workspace in Python, do some windowing, etc –Error vs. Event log viewers

The Plan: Overview Discovery & Design: February Prototyping: February-March Alpha/Beta Releases: Late March/April Implementation: April Release: May

The Plan: Alpha/Beta Releases Alpha: –GUI works on Linux, at least –We can “drop” to a command shell –We can save workspace variables (if not yet the whole space) –We have integrated a data lib (cisVecs?) and some portion of cisTracker –“Gut-check”: prospective expert users try it out

The Plan: Alpha/Beta Releases Beta Release: –Command Shell syntax is complete –GUI (if exists) is operational –Integrated with cisTracker –IRE is demonstrated to work with MRC (if not yet controlling a robot) –Peer review –End-user test period

The Plan: Overview Discovery & Design: February Prototyping: February-March Alpha/Beta Releases: Late March/April Implementation: April Release: May

The Plan: Implementation Help documentation complete Extendibility method complete and ready for publishing New instance in CVS repository Undergoing integration with robot to perform a “real” task User license details underway

The Plan: Overview Discovery & Design: February Prototyping: February-March Alpha/Beta Releases: Late March/April Implementation: April Release: May

The Plan: Release All documentation available online System available for use by ERC and public Demonstrate integration with a robot

The Schedule/Progress Weeks 1-2: Discovery and user interviews –Read literature (Python) –Establish bounds on functionality –Complete technology selections –Begin experimentation (prototyping) –Settle design of GUI/workspace environment Weeks 3-5: Programming –Wrap libraries/test –Modify existing libs if/as necessary –Command syntax development underway –GUI/workspace development underway

The Schedule/Progress: Week 5: Milestones –GUI frame complete, –workspace environment commands complete –Wrapping “impossibilities” rectified or handled Week 7: Alpha Release/review –cisTracker integration underway, nearly complete Week 9-10: Beta Release Week 10+: Implementation Mid-may: Release