VisibleSim and its applications. VisibleSim is a general simulator for modular robots.

Dependencies:

• Boost C++ Libraries >= 1.47.0
• GLUT
• GLEW
• SBCL - to compile Meld programs

NOTE: video card drivers have to be correctly installed. Otherwise, VisibleSim crashes when moving the mouse on the simulated modules.

1. Install dependencies:

brew install boost --with-mpi --without-single
brew install freeglut
brew install glew
brew install sbcl

2. make

NOTE: VisibleSim uses boost::interprocess::interprocess_semaphore. Unfortunately, its implementation in Boost 1.56 is buggy on MacOS 10.9.5. VisibleSim compiles but throws an exception at runtime saying the function is not implemented. Boost 1.56 actually implementes interprocess_semaphore using POSIX unnamed semaphores, which are not implemented in MacOS 10.9.5. To fix that bug, edit /usr/local/include/boost/interprocess/sync/interprocess_semaphore.hpp and comment the following lines to make Boost use SPIN semaphore (see the official ticket boost1.56-ticket for more details):

#if !defined(BOOST_INTERPROCESS_FORCE_GENERIC_EMULATION) && \
  (defined(BOOST_INTERPROCESS_POSIX_PROCESS_SHARED) && defined(BOOST_INTERPROCESS_POSIX_NAMED_SEMAPHORES))
  #include <boost/interprocess/sync/posix/semaphore.hpp>
  #define BOOST_INTERPROCESS_USE_POSIX

1. Intall dependencies:

sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev
sudo apt-get install freeglut3-dev
sudo apt-get install libglew-dev
sudo apt-get install sbcl

2. make

Application examples are available in applicationsSrc/ folder. For instance, in bbCycle, blocks change their color every two seconds using their own local clock. Since local clocks drift apart, the color change are very quickly desynchronized.

To implement a new application, add a folder in applicationsSrc/, program the application (see Application examples and the documentations available in doc/), add the folder name in SUBDIR macro in applicationsSrc/Makefile.

VisibleSim supports both c++ applications and Meld appplications (currently, only Blinky Block environment supports Meld programming). Regardless of the type of application you want to run, you must press 'r' (real-time mode) or 'R' (fastest mode) in the simulator window to launch the simulation.

To execute an application named myApp, compile it with make in the root folder, cd into applicationsBin/myApp, create an appropriate xml configuration file (see other configuration files in applicationsBin/ folders, and run ./myApp -c configuration.xml. By default, config.xml is loaded, but you can provide another configuration file with -c option.

Meld programs only run on Blinky Blocks for now. To execute a Meld program on VisibleSim, ensure that blinkyMeld application is compiled (blinkyMeld had belong to SUBDIR macro in applicationsSrc/Makefile when the last make in the repository root folder was performed). Then, cd into applicationsBin/blinkyMeld/ and run:

./compile-meld.sh [path to your Meld program] // to compile your Meld program.
./blinkyMeld -c configuration.xml // to run your Meld program.

Press 'r' to run the simulation.

Meld program examples are available in applicationsBin/blinkyMeld/meld/programs. All programs were not tested.