A simple client example

This is the simplest among all the clients and will serve as a sort of tutorial. We will therefore break it down into the different files and pieces of code from the source files.

Objective:

To take the left hand to three different targets in the air while maintaining balance and the right hand at a fixed target.

Running the example-client

Let us break down this client into its main components.

CMakeLists.txt

The first thing we need to look into is of course the CMakeLists.txt file for this project (ocra-icub-clients/example-client/)

First the name of the project is set and source and headers are stored in the variable folder_header and folder_source.

SET(PROJECTNAME example-client)
PROJECT(${PROJECTNAME} CXX)

FILE(GLOB folder_source ./src/*.cpp)
FILE(GLOB folder_header ./include/${PROJECTNAME}/*.h)

SOURCE_GROUP("Source Files" FILES ${folder_source})
SOURCE_GROUP("Header Files" FILES ${folder_header})

We will always need to add the YARP headers besides the project’s (doh!). The ocra-wbi-plugins headers can be retrieved with the CMake variable OcraIcub_INCLUDE_DIRS while the ocra-recipes library headers are stored in the variable OcraRecipes_INCLUDE_DIRS as shown next:

INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(
${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/include
${YARP_INCLUDE_DIRS}
${OcraIcub_INCLUDE_DIRS}
${OcraRecipes_INCLUDE_DIRS}
)

The executable to the project is added next using the specified source files…

ADD_EXECUTABLE(${PROJECTNAME} ${folder_source} ${folder_header})

… and the necessary libraries linked. The minimum required are YARP’s, ocra-recipes as well as the ocra-wbi-pluginslibraries

LIST(APPEND link_libs   ${YARP_LIBRARIES}
                        ${OcraRecipes_LIBRARIES}
                        ocra-icub
                        )

TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(${PROJECTNAME} ${link_libs})

At last, we indicate CMake to install the project in the /bin directory

INSTALL(TARGETS ${PROJECTNAME} DESTINATION bin)

example-client.cpp

This is the main file for this example. It accomplishes the following tasks:

• Check the yarp network is up.
• Create a model of the robot.
• Instantiates the controller client.
• Instantiates the client manager.
• Instantiates and configures a yarp::os::ResourceFinder object used to find configuration files and handle parameters passed to the module which are particular to the robot being used.
• Provides help to the user.
• Finally Starts/runs the client thread.

ExampleClient.cpp