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Apogy/UserGuide

< Apogy
Revision as of 13:23, 5 September 2018 by Pierre.allard.canada.ca (Talk | contribs) (The 3D Viewer)

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Apogy was originally developed at the Canadian Space Agency to control space exploration rovers and their associated sensors. Integrating all these systems developed by many different contractors and allowing them to be controlled as an integrated entity represented a challenge. In order works, a tool to plan, validate, execute and monitor integrated operations to support multiple missions was required. The technical team soon realized that a reusable framework could save a lot of work and allow for future growth. Apogy is the result of this thinking.

Apogy was built to:

  1. Be an organizationally neutral core framework (we did not want to be locked in with any particular contractor proprietary tool);
  2. Maximizes reuse between missions (keep the work to the specifics of each mission);

In order to so, Apogy:

  1. Is a component-based architecture that allows systems (ex: instruments, rovers, satellites) to “plug-in” and allow the system developer to concentrate on their system specific needs and the tooling to use them.
  2. Makes use of Open Source librairies that are Eclipse Public License compatible;

Overview

In Apogy, users control Systems by invoking commands (through Programs) and monitor the System's health through telemetry (i.e. states).

These Systems are operated in a Environment which defines such things as Digital Elevation Maps, orbit models, sun position, etc (i.e. what the Environment contains).

User, System, Environment and Data Product.

The System's command produces result (i.e. returned value, such as an Image, an error code, etc.) that Apogy geo-locates and time tags. This allows the results to be displayed within the 3D Environment. This helps in maintaining the situational awareness of the operator and keep the data in context.

Installing Apogy

TODO

Launching Apogy

TODO

Quick Start

To get you started quickly, we will import an existing Session (one of the example) and then used it to command the Integrated Rover example.

Importing an Existing Session

  1. Launch Apogy.
  2. Open the Welcome perspective if not already opened:
    1. In the top menu bar, select Open New Perspective. This will open the Add Perspective pop-up.
    2. In the pop-up, select the Projects perspective;
    3. Press OK.
  3. In the Welcome perspective, select the Projects view;
  4. In the Registry list, select org.eclipse.apogy.example.rover.apogy;
  5. Press Import . This will bring up the New Apogy Project wizard;
  6. Change the name of the project to MyFirstProject, then press Finish.
  7. In the Workspace list, select the project you just created, then press Open.
  8. Verify that the Workspace list displays your project as <Active> MyFirstProject

You now have you first Apogy Session loaded ! This session contains a Integrated Rover System, a Surface Worksite (the Mars Emulation Terrain at the Canadian Space Agency) and a few Programs.

Instantiating the Variables

Before we start our system, we will open the Programs perspective to get ready for invoking commands.

  1. Open the Programs perspective if not already opened:
    1. In the top menu bar, select Open New Perspective. This will open the Add Perspective pop-up.
    2. In the pop-up, select the Programs perspective;
    3. Press OK.

The Programs perspective provides the view required to created, edit, delete and invoque Programs. At this point, we will bring up the 3D Viewer to show what is in the environment:

  1. In the top menu bar, select Window→Show View. This will open the Add View pop-up.
    1. In the pop-up, select the Apogy Views→3D Viewer view;
    2. Press OK.

The 3D Viewer should show the terrain, the sky, and possibly the Sun, the Moon and the stars (depending on the time-of-day). We are ready to instantiate our system:

  1. On the status bar, confirm that the Context shows Simulated.
  2. Press Start. The Start button should become disabled, and the Stop button enabled.

The rover Variable has now been instanciated. In the 3D Viewer, you should see the rover standing on the corner of the terrain. We are almost ready to roll!

Invoking Existing Commands

We are now ready to invoke commands on the rover. For now, we will used the commands (or Operation Call in Apogy parlance) :

  1. In the Programs perspective, select the Programs view;
  2. In the Programs list, select A.B;
  3. Select the Program view: it should be display a list of Operation Call.
  4. In the Operation Call, select Start, then press Invoke. This will start the rover.
  5. Ensure you have the 3D Viewer showing the rover and the terrain.
  6. In the Operation Call, select Move Forward, then press Invoke. The rover should start moving forward.
  7. In the Operation Call, select Stop Motion, then press Invoke. The rover should stop moving.

You may have noticed that flags displaying a date have been popping-up in the 3D Viewer as Operation Call were being invoked. These flags mark the location of the System when the Operation Call returned and show the time at which the Operation Call execution completed.

Preventing the rover from moving through the terrain

You may have noticed that the rover wheels where driving through the terrain, and not on top of it. This is due to the very simple simulation that is updating the rover position based on its speed (the rover only moves on the XY plane and changes its azimuth). This is of course, not very realistic.

Apogy provides a PoseCorrector concept that can be used to maintain a System wheels (or feet in the case of the example Lander) in contact with the ground. Lets enable the pose corrector. For this, we will use the Vehicle Pose view:

  1. In the top menu bar, select Window→Show View. This will open the Add View pop-up.
    1. In the pop-up, select the Vehicle Pose view;
    2. Press OK.
  2. In the Vehicle Pose view, press Select.... This will bring up the Variable Feature Reference wizard.
  3. In the wizard, under Variable, select rover, then under Sub-Type, select mobilePlateform;
  4. Press OK
  5. In the Vehicle Pose, select the Pose Corrector tab;
  6. Check enabled
  7. Invoke the Operation Call used before : The rover wheels should now follow the terrain !

Creating New Commands

Up to now we have been invoking Operation Call that were already defined in a program. Lets now create our own Operation Call:

  1. In the Programs perspective, select the Programs view;
  2. Select the TODO Program Group, then press New Program. This will bring up the New Program Wizard:
  3. On the left side, select OperationCallsList (this is a Program that is a simple list of Operation Call)
  4. Press Next;
  5. Change the program's name to MyFirstProgram; press Finish.
  6. In the Program List, select the program you just created.
    1. Select the Program view, then press New. This will bring up the New Operation Call wizard;
  7. Change the name to Deploy Arm, then press Next;
  8. Select the roboticArm sub-system as the system we want to use:
    1. Under Variable, select rover;
    2. Under Sub-Type, select integratedRoboticArm→roboticArm;
  9. Now lets select the operation we want to call:
    1. Under Operation, select moveTo(EDouble, EDouble, EDouble, EDouble), then press Next;
    2. Lets set the operation parameters (here the destination joint angles values):
    3. In the left end side, select the first argument (turretAngle) and type its value (0.0 degrees) in the Value field on the right.
    4. Repeat the previous step for each of the arguments:
      1. shoulderAngle = 0.0 degrees
      2. elbowAngle = -90.0 degrees
      3. wristAngle = 0.0 degrees
  10. Save the session by pressing the Save button in the top menu.
  11. Test you command by pressing Invoke!

Browsing the Data Product

Up to now, we have been issuing commands, but we have not been looking at the Data Product (i.e. return value) generated by the Operation Calls. Lets do that now:

  1. Open the Data Products perspective if not already opened:
    1. In the top menu bar, select Open New Perspective. This will open the Add Perspective pop-up.
    2. In the pip-up, select the Data Products perspective;
    3. Press OK.
  2. In the Data Products Search, select the first Start operation call.
  3. The Data Products Details view now shows the metadata associated with the result of the operation call such as:
    1. The Context that was active when the call was made;
    2. The name and description that have been associated with result;
    3. The Relative pose of the result relative to the System that executed the call;
    4. The absolute pose of the result relative to the active Worksite;
    5. The time at the reception of the result;
  4. The Data Products Value Details now show the actual value return (in our case, a Boolean value).

The User Interface

Working with Perspectives

Apogy makes use of the Perspective concept as defined in Eclipse. A Perspective is a group of Views that are related to each other or are used together for a given task. In Apogy:


Perspective are accessed from the main menu to open, create and select the active perspective.

Apogy provides a few Perspectives that are used for basics functions:

Name Description Included Views View Description
Welcome Default perspective that is shown when you first launch Apogy. Welcome Show the welcome message for Apogy.
Projects View used to create / load / import and export Sessions.
Systems Perspectives used to defined Variables, Contexts and Initial Conditions. Variables View used to display, create and delete Variables.
Contexts View used to display, create, edit, delete and activate Contexts.
Initial Conditions View used to display, create, edit, delete, collect and apply Initial Conditions.
Programs Perspective used to define Program Groups and Programs. Programs View used to display, create and delete Program Groups and Programs.
Program View used to edit and invoke a Program and its Operation Calls.
Arguments View used to edit the selected Operation Call arguments.
Documentation View used to display documentation associated with the selected Operation Call or Operation Calls arguments.
Earth Surface Perspective used to create / edit Earth Surface Worksites. Earth Surface Worksites Show the list of available Earth Surface Worksites and allows the user to create / import / export / delete and activate Earth Surface Worksites.
Maps View used to create / edit and delete the Maps contained in a Earth Surface Worksites.
Digital Elevation Maps (DEMs) View used to create / edit / delete CartesianTriangularMeshURLMapLayerin the selected Map of a Earth Surface Worksite. Also used to edit the appearance of Image Layers that are applied to the CartesianTriangularMeshURLMapLayer.
Image Layers View used to create / edit / delete Image Layer for the selected Map of a Earth Surface Worksite.
Feature Of Interest View used to create / edit / delete FeatureOfInterest Layers for the selected Map of a Earth Surface Worksite.
Other Layers View used to create / edit / delete other layers for the selected Map of a Earth Surface Worksite.
Earth View Perspective used to display the Earth as a whole. Used for displaying orbits and flying vehicle trajectories. Earth View Show the Earth as a whole together with the Earth View Layers that have been defined in the active Earth View Configuration.
Earth View Configuration View used to create / edit and delete Earth View Layers used in the active Earth View Configuration.
Time Sources Perspective used to create / edit / delete TimeSources used in the Session. Time Sources Displays the list of available TimeSource and provided support to create / edit / delete and set the Session active TimeSource.
Details View used to display and edit the selected TimeSource details.
Data Products Perspective used to display / create / edit and delete Data Products. Data Products Search Displays the list of available Data Products and provided support to create / edit / delete and search the list of Data Products.
Data Product Details View used to display the details of the selected Data Products in the Data Products Search view.
Data Product Value Details View used to display the details of the value contained in the selected Data Products.
3D Viewing Perspective used to display the environment in 3D. 3D Viewer Displays the environment rendered in 3D.
Node Search Provides functions to search the environment topology for particular Nodes.
Node Presentation View used to display the Node Presentation for the selected Node (selected in the Node Search or the Topology Tree).
Topology Tree View used to display the topology tree and the details of the selected Node.
Node Distance View used to display the relative position/orientation and distance between two selected Node.
Earth Atmosphere Perspective used to create / edit Earth Atmosphere Worksites. Earth Atmosphere Worksites Show the list of available Earth Atmosphere Worksites and allows the user to create / import / export / delete and activate Earth Atmosphere Worksites.

The Views

The Welcome View

The Welcome View show the welcome message of Apogy. It is divided into 2 sections:

The Welcome View
  • On the top, the Apogy section displays the description of Apogy.
  • On the bottom, the Help section displays the help of Apogy.

The Projects View

The Projects View shows the Sessions available. It is divided into 2 sections:

The Projects View
  • On the left, the Workspace section displays the list of Sessions projects that are currently in the Apogy workspace. The 'Open' button is used to open the selected Session, the 'New' brings up a Wizard to create a new Session from scratch. The 'Delete' button deletes the selected Session. The 'Import' button brings up a Wizard used to import archived Session into the Apogy workspace. The 'Export' button brings up a Wizard used to export the selected Session to an archive.
  • On the right, the Registry section displays the list of registered Sessions contributed by the installed plug-ins. The 'Import' button brings up a Wizard used to import the selected registered Session into the Apogy workspace.

The 3D Viewer

Displays the environment rendered in 3D.

The Projects View

Navigating the 3D world is done using the mouse. The movement of the mouse change the position and orientation of the view point.

The following table identifies the buttons and mouse motion used to move the viewpoint:

Mouse navigation in the 3D world
Button Mouse Motion Viewpoint Motion
Center Forward Moves forward
Back Moves backward
Left Forward Rotates down
Back Rotates up
Left Rotates left
Right Rotates right
Right Forward Moves down
Back Moves Up
Left Moves left
Right Moves right

The tool bar provides quick access to the 3D viewer functions. The following table describes these functions.

Function Description
Apogy Show Statistics icon.gif Enable Statistics Toggles the display of the 3D rendering statics (frame rate, number of vertices, number of triangles, etc.) on top of the view.
Apogy Zoom Fit icon.png Zoom fit Triggers a move forward / back of the view point to bring all the 3D element into view.
Apogy LevelView Point icon.gif Level View Point Triggers a change in the view point orientation to bring it to the horizontal.
Apogy Set High Speed Mode icon.gif Set High Speed Mode Toggles the translation speed between the low and high speed factors. This determine how quickly the view point position changes for a given motion of the mouse.
Apogy Enable Picking Mode icon.gif Enable Picking Mode Toggles the picking mode. When enables, the mouse navigation is disabled, and clicking on the left button triggers a selection in the 3D viewer. The works 'Picking Enabled' appears in yellow on the lower left corner of the view.
Apogy Take Screen Shot.gif Take Screen Shot Trigger a screen capture of the 3D display and bring-up a File Selection Wizard use to specify where to save the image.
Edit View Points Bring-up a Wizard used to create / edit / delete View Points.
Enable Ambient Light Toggles between the lighting provided by the Worksite to a pre-defined ambient light providing uniform lighting.

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