[ros-users] New control packages

Wed Mar 11 15:05:37 UTC 2015

On Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 3:24 PM, Andy Zelenak <andyz at utexas.edu> wrote:

> Hi Adolfo,
>

Hey Andy,

I'm adding ros-users back in the loop.

>
> Thank you for the practical advice. I would consider rolling my packages
> into the "control_toolbox." But, I have mixed feelings. My code launches
> nodes that can communicate with the entire ROS ecosystem (Python, Arduino,
> etc). Yours is a strictly C++ library.
>

Exposing ROS interfaces is what allows interoperability with other
languages. Your controllers are also implemented in C++, which is a good
choice of language for running control loops at high frequencies.

There exist controllers that leverage the existing PID class from
control_toolbox, and expose ROS interfaces for receiving commands and
reporting back state. Two examples that come to mind are:

- 'effort_controllers/joint_position_controller' from the effort_controllers
<https://github.com/ros-controls/ros_controllers/tree/indigo-devel/effort_controllers>
package.
- 'joint_trajectory_controller
<https://github.com/ros-controls/ros_controllers/tree/indigo-devel/joint_trajectory_controller>
'

> Would you be OK with adding my packages into the ros_control stack? I
> would want to keep them as nodes, perhaps eventually implementing a C++
> library of lyap_control. But, I could add digital LPF to the existing C++
> library. That's not a problem. (And then I would deprecate the stand-alone
> packages I released)
>

My suggestion would be to propose enhancements and new features to
ros_control or control_toolbox once you feel that your implementation is
mature and useful enough to be used by others. In the meantime, and if
you're into it, I think it's a great idea to keep the parts of the
community interested in this topic up to date with your progress and ideas.
To this end, and to keep the traffic of ros-users low, I propose to:

- Discuss ideas in the Robot Control Special Interest Group [1].
- Discuss code in issues or pull requests of the relevant repository. The
latter allow you to get code reviews of your implementations.

Best,

Adolfo.

[1] https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/ros-sig-robot-control

> I do think it would be best to keep all of this control stuff together in
> one place.
>
> Andy
>
> On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 2:12 AM, Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian <
> adolfo.rodriguez at pal-robotics.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Mar 8, 2015 at 9:32 PM, Andy Zelenak via ros-users <
>> ros-users at lists.ros.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello ROS community,
>>>
>>
>> Hello Andy, thanks for sharing your work!.
>>
>> These packages look more like examples or idea demonstrators, as they
>> don't expose the controllers in a library, but rather generate executables.
>> Users are likely to take more advantage of your contributions if you expose
>> them in modular, ready to use units.
>>
>>
>>> I'd like to announce two control packages that I hope are useful to the
>>> community. First is the basic *pid* package for the PID controllers
>>> that engineers love so much:
>>>
>>> http://wiki.ros.org/pid
>>>
>>> One of the nice features of the pid package is low-pass filtering on the
>>> data and the derivative calculation, which reduces noise and erratic
>>> control effort.
>>>
>>
>> The control_toolbox [1] package, which has been around for a while, also
>> implements a PID loop, and has already a quite extensive user base. What
>> are your thought on contributing missing features as enhancements for the
>> existing implementation?.
>>
>>
>>> For more complicated control problems, there is the *lyap_control *
>>> package:
>>>
>>> http://wiki.ros.org/lyap_control
>>>
>>
>> The repository URL contains your bitbucket user. You should use:
>>
>> https://bitbucket.org/AndyZe/lyap_control
>>
>> (remove 'AndyZe@' before bitbucket.org)
>>
>>
>> [1] https://github.com/ros-controls/control_toolbox
>>
>>
>>> It can handle simple control problems too, but it really excels at
>>> high-order, coupled, over-actuated, or otherwise complicated systems. It
>>> can do some cool things like controlling seven motors simultaneously with
>>> minimal tuning.
>>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Adolfo.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Andy
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ros-users mailing list
>>> ros-users at lists.ros.org
>>> http://lists.ros.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-users
>>>
>>>
>>
> --
> Andy Zelenak
> Graduate Research Assistant
> Nuclear Robotics Program
> University of Texas at Austin
> (970) 222-0125
>

-- 
Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian
Senior robotics engineer
adolfo.rodriguez at pal-robotics.com
http://www.pal-robotics.com

PAL ROBOTICS S.L
c/ Pujades 77-79, 4º4ª
08005 Barcelona, Spain.
Tel. +34.93.414.53.47
Fax.+34.93.209.11.09
Skype: adolfo.pal-robotics
Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/palrobotics1> - Twitter
<http://twitter.com/#%21/palrobotics> - PAL Robotics YouTube Channel
<http://www.youtube.com/user/PALRobotics>

AVISO DE CONFIDENCIALIDAD: Este mensaje y sus documentos adjuntos, pueden
contener información privilegiada y/o confidencial que está dirigida
exclusivamente a su destinatario. Si usted recibe este mensaje y no es el
destinatario indicado, o el empleado encargado de su entrega a dicha
persona, por favor, notifíquelo inmediatamente y remita el mensaje original
a la dirección de correo electrónico indicada. Cualquier copia, uso o
distribución no autorizados de esta comunicación queda estrictamente
prohibida.

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail and the accompanying document(s) may
contain confidential information which is privileged and intended only for
the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.  If you are not the
intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying,
distribution or use of this e-mail and/or accompanying document(s) is
strictly prohibited.  If you have received this e-mail in error, please
immediately notify the sender at the above e-mail address.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ros.org/pipermail/ros-users/attachments/20150311/5a70eda9/attachment.html>