Version 6.3.1

Version 6.3.1 is a patch release to fix the modified installation instructions for the Eigen library.

Version 6.3.0

Version 6.3.0 contains behind-the-scenes structural improvements to Dockerfiles and GitHub workflows and clarifies the license requirements of the library and its dependencies.

Fixes and improvements

• Build and push both 20.04 and 22.04 images (#314, #315, #316)
• Don't build pinocchio tests in development image (#317)
• Simplify and consolidate Dockerfiles and scripts (#319)
• Better license management (#320)

Version 6.2.0

Version 6.2.0 contains minor changes to the Python bindings and robot model installation dependencies.

Features and improvements

• Refactor frame_name parameters (#309)
• Support ARM64 (#310)
• Remove openrobots directives (#312)

An inconsistency in nomenclature was resolved; see issue #308 and PR #309 for more details.

Behind the scenes, the docker images for development dependencies and proto dependencies are now built for multiple architectures: linux/amd64 and linux/arm64.

At the time of release, no pre-built arm64 binaries existed for Pinocchio, a dependency of the robot_model library. For this reason, the installation script is revised to install Pinocchio from source, which has the side effect of simplifying the CMake configuration; the path inclusion of /opt/openrobots is no longer required.

Version 6.1.0

Version 6.1.0 contains a few small new features as well as several fixes, mainly in
the implementation of state_representation Parameters.

Features

state_representation

• Add non-templated helper function to create shared ParameterInterface (#301)
• Add remove_parameter to ParameterMap (#302)
• Support truthiness in State objects with bool operator (#303)

Fixes and improvements

general

• Extend clproto tests (#297)
• Set default values of empty Parameters correctly (#298)
• Remove CMake error preventing build on 22.04 and minor improvements (#299)
• Set Python parameter filled on set_value (#300)
• Avoid segfaults in clproto encoding (#304)

Version 6.0.0

Control Libraries version 6.0.0

Version 6.0.0 refactors the StateType enum in state representation to be more descriptive and widely useful as well as
the dynamical systems factory for easier creation of these classes. This major change breaks implementations using
StateType enums explicitly (e.g. for parameters) and dynamical systems from the prior version.

See the updated documentation for usage guidelines for the DynamicalSystemsFactory.

This release also includes a few new features, fixes and improvements as well as updated documentation in
all parts of the control libraries.

Breaking changes

This release contains the following breaking changes:

• Refactor StateType enum and ParameterType enum (#277, #278, #280, #284)
• Relocate the DYNAMICAL_SYSTEM_TYPE enum to the general dynamical_systems namespace (#288)

state_representation

To make the StateType enum more descriptive and useful, individual spatial state types have been added
and the ParameterType moved to a separate enum. This change helps with the translation of parameters and
encoded states in downstream projects by allowing for greater introspection of data types from this enum.

Any implementations that use StateType from a prior version to create parameters or compare state types should be
updated.

dynamical_systems

The previous DYNAMICAL_SYSTEM enum has been removed from the dynamical system factory class and put directly in the
general dynamical_systems namespace and renamed to DYNAMICAL_SYSTEM_TYPE to shorten the creation and to have the
same structure as the controllers factory.

Any implementations that use the previous enum have to be updated. See the documentation for more information.

Features

state_representation

• Add CartesianState attribute setters from std vector and coefficients (#291)

python

• Use pyquaternion in bindings (#283)

protocol

• Add encode/decode options for shared pointer of State (#287)
• Add CMake config for clproto (#292)

Fixes and improvements

state_representation

• Mark Parameter getters as const (#289)
• Throw exception upon parameter validation in controllers (#290)

python

• Fix if else conditions in setup.py to correctly install modules (#285)

general

• Update and extend demos with Python examples and migrate ROS demos away (#293)
• Update documentation (#294)

Version 5.2.0

Version 5.2.0 contains a few fixes and a new feature for the Impedance controller.

Features

controllers

• Add force limit parameter to Impedance controller (#276)

Fixes

general

• Throw exception if setting state variable from vector with wrong size (#273)
• Improve installation script and python installation guide (#274)
• Fix path in protocol installation guide (#275)
• Fix python bindings import issues (#279)

Version 5.1.0

Version 5.1.0 contains a few new features and improvements to the behaviour and usage of the libraries.

Features

python

• Add python bindings for robot model (#263)
• Controllers bindings (#266, #269, #271)

Fixes and improvements

protocol

• Add Docker resources for testing and serving for protocol (#267)

python

• Bind ParameterMap (#265, #268)

state_representation

• ParameterInterface accessors to underlying parameters (#256)

general

• Incremental versioning (#260)
• Refactor cmake to export package (#259, #261)
• Improve CI checks for pull requests (#262)
• Remove previous eigen3 installation (#252, #264)

Version 5.0.0

Control Libraries version 5.0.0

Version 5.0.0 refactors the dynamical systems and controllers libraries with a
factory pattern and parameter interface for easier creation, manipulation and
substitution of these classes. This major change breaks any implementations using
dynamical systems or controllers from the prior version.

See the updated documentation for usage guidelines for the new DynamicalSystemsFactory
and ControllerFactory.

This release also includes substantial improvements to the python bindings, including
class bindings for the dynamical systems library. Additional fixes and improvements
have been made throughout the framework.

Breaking changes

This release contains the following breaking changes:

• Relocate Jacobian and JointState family headers
• Refactor dynamical system classes to use IDynamicalSystem base interface
• Refactor controller classes to use IController base interface

state_representation

To make joint-space files more structurally consistent with Cartesian-space files,
the following headers have been relocated.

• state_representation/robot/Joint*.hpp headers are now in state_representation/space/joint/Joint*.hpp
• state_representation/robot/Jacobian.hpp header is now in state_representation/space/Jacobian.hpp

Any C++ implementations that include the files from a prior version should update the file paths
in the #include directives. The namespaces themselves in C++ and Python are unaffected.

dynamical_systems

The previous DS classes inheriting from the concrete DynamicalSystem base class have been
refactored and partially renamed to inherit from the new abstract IDynamicalSystem base class.

• dynamical_systems::Blending has been removed
• dynamical_systems::Circular has been refactored
• dynamical_systems::DynamicalSystem has been refactored and renamed to dynamical_systems::IDynamicalSystem
• dynamical_systems::Linear has been refactored and renamed to dynamical_systems::PointAttractor
• dynamical_systems::Ring has been refactored
• dynamical_systems::DefaultDynamicalSystem has been introduced

It is no longer recommended to directly instantiate and use these classes. The new factory method
dynamical_systems::DynamicalSystemFactory<S>::create_dynamical_system(type) should be used instead.
See the documentation for more information.

controllers

The previous controller classes inheriting from the concrete Controller base class have been
refactored and partially renamed to inherit from the new abstract IController base class.

• controllers::Controller has been refactored and renamed to controllers::Controller
• controllers::CartesianTwistController has been refactored and renamed to controllers::CompliantTwist
• controllers::Dissipative has been refactored
• controllers::Impedance has been refactored
• controllers::VelocityImpedance has been refactored

It is no longer recommended to directly instantiate and use these classes. The new factory method
controllers::ControllerFactory<S>::create_controller(type) should be used instead.
See the documentation for more information.

Features

state_representation

• Add CartesianAcceleration class in state representation (#248)

dynamical_systems

• Create DS interface and DS factory classes (#227)
• Refactor Linear DS to PointAttractor DS with factory (#229)
• Refactor Circular DS with factory (#230)
• Refactor Ring DS with factory and remove old DS base class (#231)
• Refactor dynamical systems using factory pattern (#233)
• Propagate DS refactor to demos (#234)
• Avoid exception with the default DS in evaluate (#237)
• Add the set_parameter_value function in the DS base class (#236)
• Remove the set_base_frame logic for JointState based DS
  and override is_compatible for PointAttractor DS (#236, #239)
• Return a state that has same name as input in PointAttractor (#241)
• Update README of dynamical systems (#242)

controllers

• Add IController and ControllerFactory and refactor Controllers (#253, #254, #255)

python

• Add python bindings for dynamical_systems module (#238)

clproto

• Update pybindings and clproto with CartesianAcceleration (#250)

Fixes and improvements

state_representation

• Add static method to create Parameter pointer (#226)
• Templated get_value method for Parameter (#228)
• Mark the JointState as filled when one index was set (#245)
• Add ParameterMap base class (#247)
• Relocate Jacobian and JointState family files to the 'space/' directory (#249, #251)

python

• Add support for copy module in Python bindings (#232)
• Add empty constructors and python bindings for the
  Shape and Ellipsoid classes (#235)

general

• Install Eigen version 3.4 manually (#240)

Behind the scenes

• Fix tag generation for release docs (#225)
• Add user sshd configuration and user 'developer' in base Dockerfile
  and update all the Dockerfiles and scripts (#244, #246)

Version 4.1.0

Control Libraries version 4.1.0

Version 4.1.0 contains a few improvements to the behaviour and usage of the libraries,
namely to the Python bindings and the clproto serialization library.

Fixes and improvements

clproto

• JSON conversion support for clproto (#205)
• Support empty state objects in clproto (#207)
• Add int and int array parameters (#208)
• Add build testing option to clproto install (#216)
• Fix the field size type for clproto pack_fields (#222)

python

• Python bindings for clproto (#204)
• Add Python bindings for Parameter class (#209)
• Add possibility to have a ssh server for Python testing (#211)
• Add Python bindings for clproto encode / decode of Parameter class (#214)

state_representation

• Add method to get a joint state by name or index of the joint,
  and to get the index of the joint by its name (#210)
• Improve CartesianState tests in C++ and Python (#213)
• Add method to set a joint state by name or index of the joint (#217)
• Add the set_timestamp method to the State base class (#218)

general

• Add proto Dockerfile to copy protobuf files from (#221)

Version 4.0.0

Control Libraries version 4.0.0

Version 4.0.0 introduces some powerful new features for using state_representation objects
in real applications, including the brand new clproto C++ serialization library on the basis of Protobuf.

Many additional fixes and improvements have been made across the modules, and some deprecated methods
have now been removed with this major version release.

This release also marks the repository being renamed to control-libraries (formerly control_libraries).

See the following notes for more details.

Breaking changes

This release contains the following breaking changes:

• Rename repository to control-libraries
• Remove previously deprecated from_std_vector function (#186)
• Remove invalid multiplication operators for CartesianState and its derived classes (#195)

Repository namespace

The repository and all associated references have been renamed from epfl-lasa/control_libraries to
epfl-lasa/control-libraries. This is to better match the GitHub repository standard style and to match
the pattern in the container names. This breaking change will necessitate downstream users to update their
installation paths when cloning from GitHub.

state_representation

The following functions have been removed:

• CartesianState::from_std_vector
• CartesianPose::from_std_vector
• Ellipsoid::from_std_vector
• JointState::from_std_vector
• JointPositions::from_std_vector

The following multiplication operations are no longer permitted:

• CartesianState *= CartesianPose | CartesianTwist | CartesianWrench
• CartesianPose *= CartesianTwist | CartesianWrench | CartesianState
• CartesianTwist *= CartesianPose | CartesianTwist | CartesianWrench | CartesianState
• CartesianTwist * CartesianPose | CartesianTwist | CartesianWrench | CartesianState
• CartesianWrench *= CartesianPose | CartesianTwist | CartesianWrench | CartesianState
• CartesianWrench * CartesianPose | CartesianTwist | CartesianWrench | CartesianState

The permitted multiplication operations are:

• CartesianState *= CartesianState
• CartesianState * CartesianPose | CartesianTwist | CartesianWrench | CartesianState
• CartesianPose *= CartesianPose
• CartesianPose * CartesianPose | CartesianTwist | CartesianWrench | CartesianState

Features

The biggest feature to come with 4.0.0 is the Protobuf schema for state_representation types and the
associated clproto C++ serialization library. See the documentation for more information.

Speaking of documentation, documentation is now generated and hosted for each release and for the main and develop
branches at:
https://epfl-lasa.github.io/control-libraries

Similarly, docker images for development and downstream use are now also built and hosted automatically.

The state_representation API has seen a number of smaller features to introduce new classes, methods and operators.

• Protobuf message protocol and C++ binding library clproto for serializing and deserializing control library objects
  (#168, #175, #177, #179, #180, #190)
• Build and push development dependencies image in CI and related restructuring of Docker resources (#169)
• Add automatic documentation generation and deployment to GitHub Pages (#170, #199)
• Add set_data function declaration to all State objects (#163, #166)
• Add class JointAccelerations (#173)
• Methods for packing and unpacking multiple encoded state messages
  into serialized message packets (#182)
• Add scalar division operator for CartesianState and its derived classes (#192)

Fixes and improvements

• Correct an error in the makefile of the protobuf bindings and remove
  the generated bindings from the repository, while providing installation scripts (#174)
• Fix clamp_state_variable function for CartesianState and JointState (#176, #191)
• Install tagged versions of osqp and osqpEigen (#184)
• Add missing integration constructor from JointAccelerations for JointVelocities (#185)
• Fix path to Dockerfile in demos (#197)

Behind the scenes

• Refactor JointState tests and split them into separate test suites (#183, #187)
• Refactor CartesianState tests and split them into separate test suites (#188)