Data Types

This page shall give a short summary of the stable RST Types and their semantic structuring into distinct namespaces. As such, it shall give component developers a brief overview of the overall library and describe the rationale behind the different namespaces.

Namespaces

Geometry

Geometry is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. See also: http://www.ros.org/wiki/geometry_msgs

Kinematics

Kinematics is the branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of bodies (objects) and systems (groups of objects) without consideration of the forces that cause the motion.

Dynamics

In the field of physics, the study of the causes of motion and changes in motion is dynamics. In other words the study of forces and why objects are in motion. Dynamics includes the study of the effect of torques on motion.

Vision

In electrical engineering and computer science, image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an image.

Audition

Audio signal processing, sometimes referred to as audio processing, is the intentional alteration of auditory signals, or sound.

Stochastics

The use of the term stochastic to mean based on the theory of probability.

Communication Patterns

Refers to additional prototypes for advanced communication patterns at the integration level such as the Task-State pattern.

Adding new Data Types

RST is meant to be a repository of stable type specifications to enable compatibility across applications. To enable this, new data types start in experimentation and undergo a review process to be included into the stable core.

The process to experiment with own new data types is:

1. Creating local git branch for experimentation

To experiment with a new data type, create a branch of the rst sources. Have a look at git and do the following:

git clone -b 0.7 https://code.cor-lab.org/git/rst.git.proto rst-proto
git checkout -b 0.7-YOURPROJECT

where YOURPROJECT is your project name.

2. From source build for testing

Add proto files for your own data types and test it by building your local branch from source as documented in From Source.

3. Pull request

Once your data type is tested and became stable in your local setup, add new files, commit your changes to your local branch and create a patch:

git format-patch origin/0.7

This will create at least one {.patch} file with your local changes. To incorporate the new data type in the public rst repository, write a feature request at https://code.cor-lab.org/projects/rst with the title “Add {your new type} to the sandbox”. Attaching the {.patch} file(s).

Note: By default new data type(s) will only be committed to master. If you want the new data type(s) also to be added to the 0.7 branch, you have to note that in the issue description. This will then only allow adding new data type(s), modifications of existing types are only allowed for the master branch.

4. Stable data type

After a data type has been stable for one release cycle of RST, it will be reviewed and becomes a candidate for being moved from sandbox to stable.