Scripts for auto-generating robot packages

[shaun-edwards]

Initial PR for robot package generation scripts. See package README for a quick tutorial. Remaining items (not included in this PR)

• Python documentation
• Wiki tutorials

[shaun-edwards]

@gavanderhoorn, can you review?

[shaun-edwards]

An example of how to utilize this package for specific vendors can be found here.

[gavanderhoorn]

@gavanderhoorn, can you review?

Will do, but later this week, if ok.

[gavanderhoorn]

add rospy

[gavanderhoorn]

But only if you actually use it, obviously.

[gavanderhoorn]

Extraneous whitespace.

[gavanderhoorn]

Visual review: this looks ok. General comments:

1. we should probably take this opportunity to get indentation right, once and for all
2. should we use anon nodes for rviz, robot_state_publisher, joint_state_publisher and other nodes that get started from 'includable' launchfiles?
3. scripts that deal with user input should probably do some more validation on that input. Especially names that get used in directory / file creation.
4. Perhaps we want to extend the text printed after package generation a bit: call users attention to values that would need to be updated, parameters set, files added, etc.

[shaun-edwards]

Thanks for taking the time to review.

1. we should probably take this opportunity to get indentation right, once and for all

Agreed, I will fix (thanks for pointing them out in the source comments)

2.should we use anon nodes for rviz, robot_state_publisher, joint_state_publisher and other nodes that get started from 'includable' launchfiles?

I'm not sure where we draw the line. I've always used namespacing as you suggested in your comments. I'm inclined to keep it that way, but if you can come up with a good reason to use anonymous names, let me know.

3.scripts that deal with user input should probably do some more validation on that input. Especially names that get used in directory / file creation.

Agreed

4.Perhaps we want to extend the text printed after package generation a bit: call users attention to values that would need to be updated, parameters set, files added, etc.

Agreed. I'm open to suggestions here. I tried to avoid an explicit reliance on rospy, but I had trouble finding a terminal printing library that would emphasis the TODOs (this was the best i found )

Finally, I think I will change the options hierarchy. The current script has global options and sub-command options. This breaks up the help text and is not like any other ROS script I can find.

[gavanderhoorn]

Thanks for taking the time to review.

no problem.

Trying to run this today, with the following command line:

rosrun industrial_robot_pkg_gen package_generator support m123ijk5g [email protected]

Results in the following trace:

Namespace(author=None, email='[email protected]', func=<bound method SupportSubCmd._execute of <industrial_robot_pkg_gen.cmd_line_interface.SupportSubCmd instance at 0xb726162c>>, model='m123ijk5g', num_joints=6, pkg_vers='0.0.1', prefix=None, t_paths=['industrial_robot_pkg_gen/resources'])
Template path(s): ['/home/user/ros/ws/src/industrial_experimental/industrial_robot_pkg_gen/resources']
Generating support directories for model:  m123ijk5g
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/user/ros/ws/src/industrial_experimental/industrial_robot_pkg_gen/scripts/package_generator", line 11, in <module>
    cli.run()
  File "/home/user/ros/ws/src/industrial_experimental/industrial_robot_pkg_gen/src/industrial_robot_pkg_gen/cmd_line_interface.py", line 38, in run
    args.func(args)
  File "/home/user/ros/ws/src/industrial_experimental/industrial_robot_pkg_gen/src/industrial_robot_pkg_gen/cmd_line_interface.py", line 98, in _execute
    generator.generate_package(args.prefix, args.model, args.num_joints, args.author, args.email, args.pkg_vers, template_paths)
  File "/home/user/ros/ws/src/industrial_experimental/industrial_robot_pkg_gen/src/industrial_robot_pkg_gen/generators.py", line 63, in generate_package
    em_params = self._load_em_params(package, model, num_joints, author, author_email, version, prefix)
  File "/home/user/ros/ws/src/industrial_experimental/industrial_robot_pkg_gen/src/industrial_robot_pkg_gen/generators.py", line 110, in _load_em_params
    em.expand('@{prefix = "' + prefix + '"}', em_params)
TypeError: cannot concatenate 'str' and 'NoneType' objects

prefix is indeed None. Adding --prefix=something (before the support command verb) lets it run successfully.

Finally, I think I will change the options hierarchy. The current script has global options and sub-command options. This breaks up the help text and is not like any other ROS script I can find.

yes, the current setup is a bit unintuitive. I had to look twice where the --prefix arg should go.

[gavanderhoorn]

Also: I'm guessing this is currently 'debug' level output, but I think the "loading .. outputting .. generating .." text is a bit much. Perhaps some sort of summary at the end? "Generated N files, support package directory: /path/to/pkg/dir".

[gavanderhoorn]

Might be an idea to only use the part of the email address before the @. fi: [email protected] -> author = k.c.jones.

[shaun-edwards]

@gavanderhoorn, please approve. Unaddressed items have been added to issue #4.

[shaun-edwards]

+1....needed for ROSCon, so I'm merging myself.

[gavanderhoorn]

Sorry about that, I was OoO. Will do a post-merge review next week.