A trajectory-generator written in Python that creates trajectories from a trace of user-given waypoints.
Example trajectories, generated with "TrajectoryGenerator".
TrajectoryGenerator is written and tested with Python >= 3.6, but there are a number of additional packages required.
To avoid having to install all packages by hand, the usage of the Anaconda Python-distribution is recommended. With Anaconda it is possible to have multiple, isolated Python-environments, each with a different set of packages. The proper use of the Anaconda package management is documented here.
For this project, all necessary dependencies are bundled in the top-level
environment.yml file.
Simply run:
conda-env create -q -f environment.yml
to create a conda-environment containing all necessary packages called TrajectoryGenerator(this has to be done only once) and afterwards activate it by typing:
source activate TrajectoryGenerator
To start the program, make sure the TrajectoryGenerator-environment is activated and type:
python trajectoryGenerator.py
This will bring up the main screen of the application.
Start-up screen of the application, divided into two different halves.
By default the program starts with an empty simulation-environment.
Different background-Images can be loaded via the menu-item
Image -> Load Background.
Loading a different simulation-environment.
The main screen is divided into two different panels.
The left one (panel 1 in the image above) is used to display two different plots, the Trace- and the Results-plot. The purpose of the Trace-plot is to show the user-given waypoints (which form a so called trace) and to provide a more comfortable input-method to directly create waypoints by clicking on the plot while the program is recording this waypoint-trace. The Results-plot is used to show the generated trajectories. One can switch between the two plots by clicking on their associated tab in the left corner on top of the plots.
"Trace"-plot showing the trace of waypoints given by the user (left) and "Results"-plot showing 20 generated trajectories, based on the given trace (right).
The right panel (panel 2) is used for the input of necessary parameters and is divided into three different tabs.
"Trace"-tab with example trace.
The first tab (Trace) displays the trace of waypoints the user can create. This trace is shown as a list of points in the middle of the tab as an automatically generated plot in the left Trace-plot panel. There are three different methods of creating a trace. First it can be done visually, by clicking on the button Record Trace and then clicking inside the Trace-plot in the other panel. It can also be done manually by clicking on the +-button on the bottom to add a new point (set to 0,0) and then editing the coordinates manually through double-clicking on the values inside the trace-list. Lastly, it is also possible to import a trace by clicking on the Load-button. This can be a previously generated trace, saved by clicking on Save-button, or an arbitrary set of comma-separated values with one point per line, e.g.:
50,350
200,400
500,500
...
The possible methods of constructing of a trace is demonstrated in the following sequence:
Example of different methods to create and manipulate a "trace".
The second tab of the right panel is the Settings-tab.
The purpose of this tab is to provide all necessary parameters for the
generation of the trajectories.
"Settings"-tab with example values.
On top are two fields to enter the values for the noise, used in the generation-process. Pre-$\sigma$ denotes gaussian noise (equally in x- and y-direction), applied directly to the trace-values before the generation of the trajectories. This is to create more diverse trajectories from one single trace. The Post-$\sigma$ value represents noise applied to the already finished trajectories. This can be used to simulate measurement-noise.
In the second part of the tab, the method to generate the trajectories can be chosen.
This part is still a work in progress, so this tab is still very much subject to change
As of now, only the Interpolation-method is fully implemented.
There, the supplied trace is interpolated by the selected Method to
generate the trajectories.
The second parameter, Factor, indicates by which factor the resulting
trajectories have more points than the original trace.
For example, a trace consisting of 10 points and a factor of 5 would
generate trajectories, 50 points long.
In the bottom part are two more parameters.
The first, # Runs, determines how many trajectories should be generated
with the given settings.
The Label-parameter is used to label the generated trajectories to tell
them apart later on.
Finally on the very bottom is the Run-button, which starts the trajectory-generation.
Once the trajectories are generated, they are shown in the Results-plot and in the last tab of the right panel, the Results-tab.
"Results"-tab on the right with three generated trajectory-bundles.
The Results-tab consists mainly of a list with all generated trajectories.
The are numbered and labeled by the Label-parameter of the Settings-tab.
In this list, undesired trajectories can be deleted by selecting them
(multiple trajectories can be selected by holding shift) and the clicking
the --button below the list.
If none of the simulated trajectories are good enough, all trajectories
can be deleted by clicking on Clear All.
After only the desired trajectories are selected, which can be done by clicking on the individually while holding Shift or by selecting all with the Select All-button, the trajectories are ready to export by clicking on the button named Export. The trajectories are exported to the .hdf5-format. More documentation on the advantages and the usage of hdf5 can be found here.
The deletion and export of trajectories is shown in the following clip:
Deleting and exporting trajectories.
The following clip shows an exemplary workflow for the generation of two trajectory-bundles in a given room:
Example-workflow with "TrajectoryGenerator".