[ANNOUNCE] Orocos v0.0.2 and v0.1.0

Hello,

We are proud to announce two releases of the Open RObot COntrol Software 
framework. 

Version 0.0.2 is mainly a bugfix release of 0.0.1, including better support 
for RTLinux, greatly improved stability and added documentation.

Version 0.1.0 is our first *unstable* release, with the aim to provide  
weekly or biweekly updates of the development and allowing us to release code 
for testing.

Read all about it on our website http://www.orocos.org

The cvs is operational now. You can check out the latest version with :

cvs -d:pserver:[email protected]:/repos/pub login
cvs -d:pserver:[email protected]:/repos/pub co orocos
enter as password : anon

I have attached the release notes of the 0.1.0 version. 

With kind regards
Peter and Takis
--
----------------------------
OROCOS v0.1.0  Release Notes
----------------------------

We announce the release of the Open RObot COntrol Software v0.1.0.

This release is tagged as UNSTABLE. Expect here the latest and
greatest, but also potentially buggy features. This release and
all 0.1.X releases are the predecessors of the stable 0.2.0
release.

The 0.1.X branch has to reach some aims within each package before
0.2.0 will be released  :

    Core
    ----
    * Object Factories
    * Better founded component model (cfr the 4 levels on the webpage)
    * Expanded Event library (FSM)
    * Expanded Framework Device Interface
    * Examples

    Motion Control
    --------------
    * Classes for robot arm manipulator

    Drivers
    -------
    * Full C++ Comedi support
    * FDI implementation for velocity controlled 6DOF industrual robots,
      such as the KUKA we have in our lab in Leuven.
    * Classes for hybrid force control with the 6D task frame formalism.

The following packages might also emerge during development:

    Interfacing
    -----------
    * Pluggable command interface to the control subsystem
    * Graphical user interface

    Distribution
    ------------
    * CORBA interfaces to our components
    * Distributed HeartBeatGenerator

This 0.1.0 release is almost identical to the 0.0.2 release, except that some
extra components (like the objectfactory) which don't work yet have
been added.

Consult the NEWS file in each package for a brief description of
the main changes.

OROCOS v0.0.1  Release Notes
----------------------------


We announce the release of the Open RObot COntrol Software v0.0.1, a
Free Software framework that provides a portable and configurable
infrastructure for controling robots (manipulators and mobile
platforms) and machine tools.  See http://www.orocos.org for a more
detailed description of the project goals and vision.

The project is still in its alpha stage, but the currently provided
functionality should run relatively stably. This release is mainly
meant for developers and interested users. The languages in use are C
and C++, but it is our intention to extend these with bindings to
other languages.

We currently support three operation modes: user space GNU/Linux and
kernel space Real-Time Linux and RTAI.  RTAI is best supported for
real time operation; Ecos will be supported in the future.

This release contains three packages: "Core," "Drivers" and "Motion Control".

  The Core package provides the functionality for a portable,
  object-oriented system infrastructure:

HeartBeat - A virtual, event enabled system clock
Events    - The main form of communication between software components
FOSI      - A C++ abstraction layer of the underlying operating system
FDI       - A first attempt to describe some system components interfaces
rtstl     - Enables the STL library transparantly in kernel space

  The Drivers package depends on the Core. Its aim is to provide
  implementations of the interfaces described in the FDI and delivers
  the following functionality:

Comedi C++ - An initial attempt at wrapping the Comedi library to C++ classes
Switch PP  - A component that converts parallel port interrupts to Events
Encoder    - A sample implementation of an event-enabled encoder component
             which fires when a certain position is reached.
Axis       - An example of combining the above three into an Axis-component, 
             which provides a simple homing algorithm

  The Motion Control package contains an implementation of a PID control loop
  allowing type checked connection of control modules (e.g. Sensor readings,
  estimator results,...)

ServoLoop     - A template based, configurable control loop
ControlModule - A type checked Input/Output unit of data processing


Documentation is provided on the web site (see Download section) and
in each package under the doc dir. Our code is documented using Doxygen
style comments.



Useful links
-------------

Orocos
http:://www.orocos.org/

Linux
http://www.kernel.org/

RTAI
http://www.aero.polimi.it/projects/rtai/

RTLinux
http://www.fsmlabs.com/

Comedi library
http://stm.lbl.gov/comedi/