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Papyrus/customizations/robotics/getstarted

< Papyrus‎ | customizations/robotics
Revision as of 10:29, 12 December 2019 by Ansgar.radermacher.cea.fr (Talk | contribs) (PeriodicPublisher)

Installation instructions

Binary installation

Papyrus for Robotics can be installed either in form of an RCP (a self contained Eclipse installation) or added to an existing Eclipse installation by using an update site. Both can be downloaded from eclipse.org/papyrus/components/robotics.

  • If you use the RCP, make sure that a JRE is already installed in your system and contained in the system PATH.
  • If want to extend an existing Eclipse, add the update-site via Help->Install New Software->Add (update-site)

Source code installation

  • Install Papyrus SW designer (which in turn will install Papyrus itself and MARTE) using the following update site
  • Import the plugins contained in the git repository (notably in the "plugins" sub-folder) into your Eclipse installation.

Getting Started

The Papyrus for Robotics customizations supports the creations of models that are compliant with the RobMoSys approach.

In this section, we assume that you've already downloaded and installed Papyrus for Robotics either via its update-site or an RCP available on eclipse.org. We will walk through an example that is available once Papyrus for Robotics is installed. In order to open the example, click New->Example, select Robotic examples in the category Papyrus examples and then choose the RobMoSys example in the wizard.

Papyrus-customizations-robotics-diy-runexample.gif
Run the simple example that comes along with Papyrus for Robotics

Introduction

This example shows how Papyrus4Robotics supports the service-based approach for the composition of software components.

Composition in an Ecosystem organized in tiers is the RobMoSys for system integration. The next sections discuss how tier 2 and tier 3 participants use Papyrus4Robotics to model a simple service-based composition of a mapper component and a planner component.

Although the process implies multiple tiers and stakeholders, the provided example is stored in a single model to keep things simple. For real projects, the different aspects would be stored in multiple models to facilitate collaboration. The illustration below corresponds to the role descriptions, as taken from the RobMoSys wiki.

Papyrus-customizations-robotics-Service-based-composition-approach.png
Roles and interactions in a service-based composition of software components, see also RobMoSys Wiki

Domain Expert (Tier 2)

Tier 2 are robotics experts who define a //complete// characterization of services in robotics domains, e.g., mapping, planning, localization, etc. Tier 2 structures each robotics domain by creating domain-models that cover a number of aspects, including data structures and communication semantics. Service designers are the domain experts on Tier 2 that design individual service definitions for use by Tier 3.

The picture below shows a portion of data structures defined for the mapping domain in this example.

width=800px
Model of data types for the robotic mapping domain

Papyrus4Robotics leverages concepts from MARTE] NFP and VSL profiles to comply with RobMoSys' specifications on digital data representation. Built-in type definitions can be imported from the BasicNFP_Types MARTE library and specialized for a specific domain by using a dedicated palette (right side of the picture). Leveraging on MARTE, **Papyrus4Robotics supports physical units descriptions** to formally define unambiguous semantics of units of measurements in data types.

Not all data types are communication objects. In order to avoid duplicates, the palette of the diagram only enables the creation of the different data-type variants. At any moment, a data-type can be converted into a communication object and vice versa, as shown in the following dialog.

Papyrus-customizations-robotics-ToggleCommunicationObject.png
Toggle between data-type and communication object

Once the communicated data structures (Communication Objects, identified with the CO icon on the top left corner) are defined, the communication pattern usage can be formalized. The next picture shows the model that describes the MappingSdef service. In this example, MappingSdef uses the Push pattern and selects the Map data type as communicated data structure. Please note that it is possible to toggle between ``normal data types and communication objects via the context menu.

Papyrus-customizations-robotics-SimpleExampleServiceDef.png
Model of service definition for the robotic mapping domain}}

Component Suppliers (Tier 3)

Component suppliers at Tier 3 provide models of software component definitions.

Periodic publisher

The model below shows a component that publishers a Map periodically.

Papyrus-customizations-robotics-SimpleExampleComponentDef.png
Model of mapper that is fully compliant to MappingSdef

The example focuses on the modeling of a single component port (pMap) providing the mapping service.

PeriodicPublisher contains one Parameter structure, that represents a set of parameters that make the component configurable for reuse in different scenarios by the system builder or even at run-time. The Parameter structure content is visualized in the model editor by selecting the Paramter icon and the Parameters Settings tab in the property view (see below). The selected parameter block has been moved in the screenshot below to keep image dimensions relatively small.

Papyrus-customizations-robotics-SimpleExampleParameters.png
Visualization of parameter set of PeriodicPublisher

In this simple example, PeriodicPublisher has 2 configurable parameters with built-in types. However composite value specifications (collection, tuple, choice, etc.) can be specified as well, using the MARTE VSL syntax.

PeriodicPublisher defines one activity (it could define more), which is a OS-agnostic representation of a thread. Activities provide wrappers for functions (algorithms). Activities do have set of parameters for configuration (e.g., inter-arrival range, that is max and min activation frequencies). Similarly to component parameters, activity paramters can be viewed and set through the Parameters Settings tab in the property view.

Subscriber

The model is a component that subscribes to Map data delivered by the periodic publisher, not shown here.

The example has a single port rMap that **requires** (consumes, in case of Push) a fully compliant implementation of MappingSdef.

System Builder (Tier 3)

System builders instantiate component definitions to provide a platform-independent specification of a software system. The model below shows the instantiation and connection of one instance of PeriodicPublisher and one instance of Subscriber.

Papyrus-customizations-robotics-SimpleExampleAssembly.png
Model of system component architecture

It is now assumed that the mapper component instance must work outdoor. The default configuration of PeriodicPublisher component definition was indoor, so the component instance m must be re-configured by the system builder.

For a component instance the parameter set is accessible by clicking on the instance itself and selecting the Parameters Settings tab in the property view. The next picture shows the value of indoor parameter is set to false. Yellow highlighting visually enforces the message that the parameter value is now different from the default one.

Papyrus-customizations-robotics-SimpleExampleParametersInstance.png
Re-Configuration of PeriodicPublisher Instance

Conclusions

This example shows a structural model in the context of composition of software components. It shows how different tiers contribute models to achieve composition of software components, using service-definitions as central architectural element for it. Then it focuses on one instance of the mapper component and shows a simple reconfiguration of one of its parameters.

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