Change logs¶

Version 0.29.1¶

[world] add “flat land”
[expressions] upgraded interpreter for mathematical expressions to change drone internals
[misc] several stabilility improvements

[system] Ubuntu Bionic added to the supported distributions.
[system] Ubuntu Trusty and Wily removed from the supported distributions.
[dashboard] some minor improvements in the web dashboard
[system] better reliability of world reset
[dashboard] ability to set initial drone position for the next reset. See this section

[system] at startup, check that sphinx and firmwared are running the same version. This avoids malfunctions after updating sphinx.
[misc] various bug fixes.

[real-time] robust to very slow real-time factors (< 1%) and slightly improve speed.
[cmdline] ability to suppress a drone parameter by setting it empty. Example to disable the wifi interface: sphinx bebop2.drone::stolen_interface=''
[bug] dashboard’s http port was incremented for no reason at each simulation run.
[bug] Gazebo HMI in remote mode was broken.
[GPS] add Geoid separation information in NMEA packets
[drones] chimera is renamed into “Bluegrass”

[system] It is now possible to run several instances of Sphinx in parallel.
[cmdline] new argument in the command line to set the web dashboad port (--http-port=) and the gazebo HMI’port (--hmi-port=)
[real-time] new argument in the command line to set the real-time factor (--rt-percent). More info in sphinx’s help text (sphinx --help).

[firmwares] new format available for the firmware files: .ext2.zip. Obviously, these files are much smaller than former .ext2. Note that .ext2 files are still supported.
[system] remove all subprocesses in case of brutal exit
[system] fix some compatibility issue with Debian distributions.
[debug] fix camera rotation when activating ‘follow’ camera mode more than once

[command line] removed option -V, --enable-video. As of this version, sphinx enables all camera sensors. If your configuration is not suited for GPU-consuming cameras, you can disable these sensors by specifying drone options like “with_front_cam=false” in command line or in ‘.drone’ file.
[command line] to fix HMI freeze when a network interface gets lost, the option --interface is introduced to put sphinx in remote mode (Running sphinx remotely)
[spawn point] all provided worlds come with one or more positions describing where a drone can be spawned. More info in Anatomy of a ‘.drone’ file and Anatomy of a ‘.world’ file
[Bebop-Pro Thermal] ready to support Bebop Thermal firmware
[Bebop 2 Power] new HD battery supported (see drone option --with_hd_battery)
[web dashboard] add button to export PNG picture of plot window.
[world] new world stonehenge added.
[world] set real GPS position for 3D-scanned worlds

[handling] new plugin “Handling” available. It lets the user virtually manipulate the drone while it is off. Useful for calibration or hand-takeoff.
[network QoS] like in former versions, network QoS can be adjusted at runtime via the web dashboard. This way, it is possible to break the communication with the drone controller at any time.
[HMI] Fix user camera position when leaving “Follow” mode.
[world] new world cloverleaf_interchange
[minidrones] params swing_color, evo_type, evo_style are now treated as sdf_params.
[dashboard] add editor widget in order to edit complex fields from Inspector.

[dashboard] New widget Map! Drone trajectories are drawn on Google Map in real time. The target in FollowMe mode is also supported by this widget. Check that section for more info.
[Sequoia] Support USB plugin of physical Sequoia. Simulated drones (like Disco) can communicate with it at runtime.
[system] support kernel 4.8+
[API] sdf params can now be overridden from command line. Autocompletion is also supported. Example:
$ sphinx -V bebop2.drone::low_gpu=true