Jiminy-py

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.

This release mainly enables to register discrete force profiles. It is especially useful to reduce computational cost when implementation is done in Python. It is also necessary to apply filters or hysteresis. In addition, many convenience features have been added to the viewer, and stability and performance have been significantly improved (especially mesh loading time). Finally, a few annoying but not critical bugs have been fixed.

New features

* [core] Enable to specify update period of registered force profiles.
* [python/viewer] It is now possible to add custom 'markers', automatically updated at refresh.

Improvements

* [python/viewer] Greatly improve mesh loading speed.
* [python/viewer] Enable to zoom very close in 'panda3d' without seeing through the model.
* [python/viewer] Add 'cone' and 'arrow' primitives to 'panda3d' rendering backend.
* [python/viewer] Add methods 'move_node' and 'set_scale' to move and rescale a single node in 'panda3d'.
* [python/viewer] More natural shadow casting in 'panda3d'.
* [python/viewer] Move named color support from 'replay' module to 'viewer'. Improved default color cycle.
* [python/viewer] 'set_color' now set colors of both visual and collision meshes.
* [python/viewer] 'set_color' disables texture if specified, and reset original color and texture otherwise.
* [python/viewer] Fallback to offscreen rendering if opening 'panda3d' graphical window is impossible.
* [python/viewer] Wheel click can be used to move camera lookup point forward and backward in 'panda3d'.

Bug fixes

* [core] Fix system states not cleared at reset.
* [core] Make it impossible to register external forces to the universe itself.
* [core/python] Automatically reset to Zero the return variable of functors returning that are supposed to return by value in C++.
* [python/viewer] Increase meshcat opening timeout to avoid false positive on low-end hardware.
* [python/viewer] Fix viewer not properly closed in some cases, and internal state not cleaned-up.
* [python/viewer] Fix viewer instance of simulator wrongly detected as still available after closing environment.
* [python/viewer] Fix delete-on-close for panda3d.
* [misc] Fix C++ error message not showing properly on Windows.
* [misc] Fix inter-operability with custom eigenpy/hppfcl/pinocchio install.

Miscellaneous

* [core] Increase constants + variable names memory size to align with common use-cases. Clearer error message in case of overflow.
* [python/viewer] Default rendering backend is now 'panda3d' systematically for non-interactive mode.
* [python/viewer] Only display relevant error messages (if possible) when starting panda3d.
* [misc] Check if Python executable provided to Cmake is valid.
* [misc] Make sure OpenGL is installed by 'easy_install_deps_ubuntu.sh' script.

This release focuses on performance improvements of Jiminy Viewer for 'Panda3d' backend. Firstly, most of the redundant computations and unnecessary rendering refresh have been removed. Secondly, 'av' video writer library is used in place of 'cv2', which supports 'h264' codec, resulting in faster generation (~40s for 1min simulation duration), smaller file (~15MB for 1min instead of ~50MB), and web-compatibility. In addition, a new rendering backend 'panda3d-qt' is now available, enabling to embed Jiminy Viewer in custom Qt graph, allowing complex interactions.

New features

* [python/viewer] Initial support of 'panda3d-qt' rendering backend.
* [python/viewer] Add method to update robot color on-the-fly (only supported by panda3d).
* [python/dynamics] Add XYZQuat to XYZRPY position and velocity converters.

Improvements

* [python/viewer] Use 'av' package instead of 'cv2' to export 'panda3d'/'gepetto-gui' video: faster, smaller, and support 'h264'.
* [python/viewer] Improve video recording speed even further by disabling panda3d framerate limit during recording.
* [python/viewer] Update collision geometry placement only once and only if necessary.
* [python/viewer] Improve frame capture speed (and thereby video recording) by refreshing 'panda3d' scene only if needed.
* [python/viewer] 'capture_frame' as raw data is now available for 'panda3d'.

Bug fixes

* [python/viewer] Fix panda3d screenshot wrongly removing alpha channel for '.png'.
* [gym/common/envs] Fix opening onscreen window at env reset if offscreen window is already available.
* [misc] Fix support of Ninja Cmake generator.
* [misc] Fix support of Cmake 3.20 on windows.

Breaking API changes

* [python/viewer] Reorder and remove some keyword arguments of `Viewer.__init__` and 'play_trajectories'.
* [python/viewer] Rename 'urdf_rgba' to 'robot_color' for clarity. Add 's' suffix to list arguments.
* [python/viewer] Replace 'window_name' argument by static 'Viewer' attribute.

Miscellaneous

* [python/viewer] Raise warning if 'enable_clock' is true and 'panda3d' backend is not used.
* [python/viewer] Raise helpful exception if 'replay' called with wrong urdf color.
* [misc] Avoid copying irrelevant files when build wheels.
* [misc] Clearer Cmake warnings for Ubuntu 18 legacy mode.
* [misc] To need to install wheels twice anymore thanks to new pip dependency resolver.
* [misc] Update dependencies to latest version available.