This is not a comprehensive list of changes but rather a hand-curated collection of the more notable ones. For a comprehensive history, see the Simbody GitHub repo. You can use the release dates below to find all the PRs and issues that were included in a particular release.
Heads up: Simbody 3.5 will be the last release that will build with C++03 (future patch builds with version numbers like 3.5.1, if any, will work too). For 3.6 and above we will permit Simbody developers to use C++11, restricted to the subset that is currently supported on all our platforms. Since the C++03 and C++11 ABIs are not compatible, code that uses Simbody 3.6 will also have to be built with C++11. Time to move up, if you haven't already!
This release focused primarily on infrastructure for and prototyping of rigid contact and impact, and the development of examples showing how to perform task space control using Simbody. These two projects were supported by our DARPA research subcontract with Open Source Robotics Foundation, and were integrated with Gazebo. Further development for rigid contact is required for smooth integration into Simbody; this is planned for Simbody 4.0 and only the bravest among you should attempt to use rigid contact before then. The task space control examples TaskSpaceControl-UR10 and TaskSpaceControl-Atlas can be found in the Simbody examples directory.
Chris Dembia integrated Nikolaus Hansen's Covariant Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) global optimizer into Simbody's existing Optimizer class framework, and implemented a multithreading capability for it. This is ready to use and we would like feedback.
There were numerous smaller improvements to Simbody since the previous release, in build and installation, documentation, performance, bug fixes, and small enhancements. There are no known incompatibilities with previous release 3.4.1 and we highly recommend that you upgrade.
- Added Task Space control examples (pr #237 #238) (work supported by OSRF)
- Added IMU (orientation) tracking assembly condition for IK (pr #239)
- Added STL file reader to PolygonalMesh class (issue #57, pr #176)
- Added CMA-ES global optimizer with multithreading support (pr #249 #253 #267 #268)
- Initial rigid contact support (pr #137). Includes a collection of new unilateral constraints and a specialized solver. Not yet well integrated into Simbody overall. (work supported by OSRF)
- Implemented PLUS method impact handling (issue #115 #205, pr #226) (work supported by OSRF)
- Fixed bug in orientation of non-camera-facing text in visualizer (issue #214, pr #215)
- Fixed bug in mesh triangulation (issue #198, pr #199)
- Fixed Assembler bugs; could sometimes make initial solution worse or report spurious failure (issue #164 #167, pr #165 #168)
- Fixed Debug visualizer name to have "_d" (issue #5)
- Improved regression test timing framework to make it useful for multithreaded tests (pr #265)
- Much nicer Doxygen for Rotation class (issue #183)
- Reorganized Simbody example programs (pr #238)
- Added HalfSpace-ConvexImplicitSurface contact tracker (issue #232, pr #233)
- Added methods for principal curvatures and directions on arbitrary implicit surface (pr #231)
- Added missing calcContactPatch() functionality for Hertz contacts (pr #224)
- Added Brick ContactGeometry shape (pr #218)
- Added several new bilateral constraints useful as the basis for unilateral constraints in rigid contact: Constraint::PointOnPlaneContact, SphereOnPlaneContact, SphereOnSphereContact, LineOnLineContact (edge/edge) (pr #137 #169)
- Improved constraint performance for several basic constraints (pr #137)
- Moved install instructions to README.md where they can be kept up to date (pr #144 and others)
- Replaced distance constraint equations to use length rather than length^2 (issue #3). This improves scaling when distance constraint is combined with other constraints.
- Numerous improvements to build, install, documentation, and performance.
- Added CONTRIBUTING.md file explaining ways to contribute to the Simbody project.
This is primarily a release for improving our build and install process to comply with Debian's requirements. Thanks to José Rivero and Steve Peters at Open Source Robotics Foundation, and Chris Dembia at Stanford for the bulk of this effort.
- Fixed
SimbodyMatterSubsystem::getTotalCentrifugalForces()(issue #112, pr #116). - Many changes to build and install, mostly affecting Linux and OSX. Should now conform better to standards on those platforms and in general be better and finding its dependencies. (pr #114 #118 #120 #121 #122 #127 #130 #131 #133, issue #48 #68 #92 #113)
- Started using the -Werror flag (treat warnings as errors) in Travis builds to ensure that we are warning-free. (issue #128, pr #129 #131)
- Compile with C++11 enabled by default. However, the code will still build in C++03. (pr #123, #126)
This is the first release built for use in Open Source Robotic Foundation's Gazebo robot simulator and is also the version of Simbody that ships with OpenSim 3.2. It incorporates many fixes and enhancements prompted by the integration effort with OSRF, and a new Debian package builder for smooth incorporation into the Gazebo build.
- Improved matrix/vector documentation and reorganized source to break up large files (pr #70 #76 #77 #78 #87)
- Improved Force::Gravity to make it more flexible and avoid NaNs (pr #33)
- Fix multiplyByMInv() to be usable in forces and controllers; now only requires state to be realized to position stage. (issue #29, pr #31)
- Make MobilizedBody::lock() and lockAt() method immediately modify the state (issue #20, pr #23)
- Added Debian/Ubuntu package building (pr #24 #32 #52 #58 #59 #64)
- Improved TestMultibodyPerformance timing information (pr #22)
- Fixed bug in MobilizedBody::isSameMobilizedBody() (issue #15, pr #16)
- Started using Travis-CI for continuous integration testing (pr #25)
- Improved DecorativeGeometry classes (issue #34, pr #35 #61)
- Improved installation, esp. Linux and OSX (issue #38 #65 #101, pr #64 #91 #102 #107)
- Added uninstall (issue #104, pr #106)
- Visualizer name changed to "simbody-visualizer" (issue #27, pr #53)
- Added torque-limited motor examples
- Added ability to lock/unlock mobilizers and disble/enable Motion objects on the fly, for flexible mixed forward/inverse dynamics
- Re-engineered Force::Gravity for speed and run time flexibility (for Gazebo)
- Extended Force::Gravity to support gravity compensation controllers
- Allow runtime changes to MobilityLinear{Spring,Damper} (for Gazebo)
- Added Theo Jansen Strandbeest example
- Ported some Gazebo regression tests to Simbody's regression suite.
- Added dirent.h support on Windows (for directory searching)
- Many bug fixes, doxygen improvements, and small performance improvements
- Added Semi-Explicit Euler integrators, with and without error control (for Gazebo)
- Added O(n) methods for task space Jacobians
This is the Simbody release that shipped with OpenSim 3.1 and contains the initial work done with Open Source Robotics Foundation for the Gazebo simulator. The source was managed on Subversion, although its code and history were transferred to GitHub. The source zip is available on the GitHub release page here.
- Added MobilityLinearStop for joint stops (for Gazebo)
- Added Simbody example for reading Gazebo sdf files
- Added MultibodyGraphMaker to map bodies and joints to mobilizers and constraints (for Gazebo)
- Added a variety of prototype implementations of unilateral contact as adhoc tests
- Added some pre-built mesh types to PolygonalMesh (for Gazebo)
- Modified Force::Gravity to allow excluded bodies (needed by Gazebo)
- Added DiscreteForces and MobilityDiscreteForces elements for Gazebo
- Added Measure::Delay for time-delay of input signal
- Added scissor-lift example to show behavior on highly constrained mechanisms
- Added RK2 integrator
- Modified Gimbal mobilizer to use Euler angle derivatives as generalized speeds
- Added Bushing (6 dof) mobilizer parameterized like Gimbal
- Added methods for calculating geodesics over smooth contact geometry
- Added infrastructure for fast cable wrapping and some prototypes
- Many small performance improvements and bug fixes