Jiminy-py

This release focuses on making the viewer more informative to ease analysis to control strategies by showing the center of mass and contact forces when replaying log data.

New features

* [python/viewer] Add helper to emulate sensor update from log, and use it in 'play_log_data' method.
* [python/viewer] Add top-level options to enable/disable display of com/contacts.

Improvements

* [core|core/python] Add public setter 'AbstractSensorBase.set' for sensor data and expose it in Python.
* [python/viewer] Add option to place cylinder anchor at bottom in Panda3d.
* [python/viewer] Add option to always display node at foreground in Panda3d, and use it for markers.
* [python/viewer] Add method to show/hide a single node in Panda3d.
* [python/viewer] Custom 'update_hook' can be provided to 'display' and 'replay' methods.
* [python/viewer] 'add_marker' now supports passing callables.
* [python/viewer] Make objects clickable in Panda3d.

Patches and bug fixes

* [python/viewer] Fix error when using exotic matplotlib backends.
* [python/viewer] Fix 'Viewer.add_marker' and 'Panda3dApp.move_node' node placement.
* [python/viewer] Fix 'append_group' when 'remove_if_exits=False'.
* [python/viewer] Do not add legend if replay of the single log.
* [python/viewer] Hide node if scale is too small.

Miscellaneous

* [core] Make sensor setter 'AbstractSensorBase.setAll' private.
* [core/python] 'result_converter' now supports Eigen::Ref.

It is now possible to reconstruct the robot corresponding to a simulation log file. It is also possible to replay it in Jiminy Viewer, as long as the original meshes are still available, if any. In addition, a few issues related to widgets display have been fixed.

New features

* [python/log] Add generic utility to reconstruct robot from log.
* [python/viewer] Add 'jiminy_replay' CLI entrypoint to replay Jiminy log files.

Improvements

* [python/simulator] 'simulate' now supports writing log in any available format.
* [python/viewer] Add option to not remove widgets after replaying trajectories.

Bug fixes

* [core/python] Fix 'buildGeomFromUrdf' module interoperability.
* [python/viewer] Fix default legend when replaying multiple trajectories at once.
* [python/viewer] Fix colors of Panda3d legend.
* [python/viewer] Fix legend in panda3d when using identical labels.

Miscellaneous

* [python/viewer] Reorder default colors cycle.
* [python/viewer] Switch device notifications from 'error' to 'fatal' for Panda3d.
* [misc] Remove dual ABI support for Python bindings since it is unstable and may cause segfault.
* [misc] Provide cmake config version file in wheel.

Small release fixing conflicts with external Boost.Python modules, along some other minor bugs.

Bug fixes

* [core] Fix bug at Robot initialization when defining default flexible joints in the model.
* [core/python] Fix wrong keyword arguments for 'EngineMultiRobot.reset' method.
* [core/python] Add new Boost.Python return policy that can be used to by-pass converter registry if 'convertToPython' has been specified.

Miscellaneous

* [python] Add some missing typing return types.

Minor release mainly intended to improve C++ core code quality to make it easier to read and maintain. It also fixes the last remaining issues to easily build Boost.Python extension modules when Jiminy is installed using pip.

Improvements

* [core] Allow arbitrary large controller update period.
* [core] Improve error reporting by printing fully qualified function name without arguments.
* [core] Do not shuffle first iteration cycle of 'PGSolver', and initialize indices in reverse order to make convergence (hopefully) faster.
* [gym/common/envs] Refresh action space before observation space since action could be part of observation but not conversely.
* [gym/examples] Automatically monitor env step 'info' on Tensorboard's histograms when using RLlib backend.

Bug fixes

* [core] Fix computation of visco-elastic coupling forces.

Miscellaneous

* [core] Remove C-style cast, and avoid unnecessary cast.
* [core] Remove irrelevant virtual keywords.
* [core] Replace (u)int32_t by std::size_t/ptrdiff_t when appropriate for clarity and portability.
* [core] Enable implicit conversion, deprecation, c-style cast, and unused variables warnings.
* [core] Remove all dependencies to jsoncpp in core headers.
* [core/python] Add fallback to complementary unsigned/signed type for integers for 'convertFromPython'.
* [gym/common/wrappers] Relax argument type of 'FilteredFrameStack' for convenience.
* [gym/common/wrappers] Rename 'FilterFrameStack' in 'FilteredFrameStack' for clarity.
* [gym/examples] RLlib 'evaluate' helper method now returns aggregated info over episode.
* [gym/examples] Only log data in Tensorboard format when RLlib is used, to dramatically reduce log folder size.
* [misc] Minor update of easy install dependencies.
* [misc] Do not install 'robotpkg-urdfdom' binaries since 'liburdom-dev' is already installed by other easy-install dependencies.
* [misc] Relax Ubuntu version check for easy install script since it should work on any release in practice.
* [misc] More robust Python library finding in provided CMake configuration file.
* [misc] Check compatibility with required jiminy version if any in provided CMake configuration file.
* [misc] Detect Numpy headers in provided CMake configuration file.
* [misc] Add missing boost definitions in CMake configuration file.

This release aims at making it as simple as possible to build executable and Boost.Python extension modules for Jiminy using CMake. Now it requires about 10 lines of CMake. Dynamic linking is automatically handled to ensure the generated binary works out-of-the-box.

Improvements

* [misc] Bundle cmake configuration file in wheel.
* [misc] Provide example of pip-based build of C++ executable using CMake.

Miscellaneous

* [misc] Fix wheel deploy. Add project URLs to pypi project page.
* [misc] Refactor legacy CMake Python finding to be consistent with CMake>=3.12.
* [misc] Remove legacy compilation mode since no longer necessary.
* [misc] Cleanup pinocchio include and move implementation include in cpp if possible.

This release makes it possible to build C++ executable and Boost.Python extension modules for jiminy just by installing it via `pip`, instead of having to clone it and build it from source. It also make sure `jiminy_py` is compatible with Boost.Python modules compile with different versions of Boost and different C++ ABI. Additionally, a few bugs have been fixed.

Improvements

* [misc] Improve module interoperability by supporting old, new, and dual C++ ABI.
* [misc] Bundle Jiminy headers and shared core library in wheels.

Bug fixes

* [core] Fixes segfault when calling some methods on uninitialized objects.
* [core] Fix HDF5 export of empty string constants.
* [misc] Fix telemetry variables memory overflow (again).
* [misc] Fix Boost python error handling at import.

Miscellaneous

* [misc] Refactor binary distribution to mimic numpy.
* [misc] Remove C++17 features breaking compatibility with gcc-6 to build wheels for manylinux_2_24.