The fmi_adapter repository

This repository provides the fmi_adapter package for wrapping functional mockup units (FMUs) for co-simulation of physical models into ROS nodes. The implementation for the second generation of ROS (i.e. ROS 2) can be found in the branches named after the distributions (e.g., Foxy) and the master branch for the Rolling distribution.

FMUs are defined in the FMI standard and can be created with a variety of modeling and simulation tools, including Dymola, MATLAB/Simulink, OpenModelica, SimulationX, and Wolfram System Modeler.

fmi_adapter provides a library with convenience functions based on common ROS types to load an FMU during runtime, retrieve the input, output, and parameter names, set timestamped input values, run the FMU’s numeric solver, and query the resulting output.

In detail, this repository contains two ROS packages:

• fmi_adapter provides a generic library and ROS node for loading and running FMUs in ROS-based applications.
• fmi_adapter_examples provides small examples for the use of fmi_adapter.

Technical information on the interfaces and use of these packages is given in the README.md files in the corresponding subfolders.

Purpose of the project

The software is not ready for production use. It has neither been developed nor tested for a specific use case. However, the license conditions of the applicable Open Source licenses allow you to adapt the software to your needs. Before using it in a safety relevant setting, make sure that the software fulfills your requirements and adjust it according to any applicable safety standards (e.g. ISO 26262).

Requirements, how to build, test, install, use, etc.

Clone the repository into a ROS workspace and build it using catkin build from the Catkin Command Line Tools. For correct installation of the FMUs in the examples package, use a dedicated install space by calling catkin config --install first.

License

fmi_adapter is open-sourced under the Apache-2.0 license. See the LICENSE file for details.

For a list of other open source components included in fmi_adapter, see the file 3rd-party-licenses.txt.

Quality assurance

• Coding style:
  • Google’s C++ coding style is used, with some minor modifications. The conformance is checked using clang-format. The style definition can be found in .clang-format.
  • run_clang-format_in-place.bash reformats all C++ files of the local repository in place according to the style definition.
• Linters:
  • The cpplint tool is used to detect common flaws and problems in C++ code. The rule configuration is contained in CPPLINT.cfg.
  • The CMakeLists.txt and package description files are checked with catkin_lint.
• Unit tests:
  • Unit tests based on rostest+gtest are located in the fmi_adapter/test folder.
  • The unit tests use an FMU created with the FMU SDK by QTronic GmbH, cf. 3rd-party-licenses.txt.

The pre-commit.hook file provides a client-side commit hook to check the conformance with the coding style and the linters during every commit. In case of a finding by clang-format or one of the linters, the commit will be rejected. To set this client-side commit hook up, please run ln -s ../../pre-commit.hook .git/hooks/pre-commit from the local repository root.

Known issues/limitations

Please notice the following issues/limitations:

• fmi_adapter only supports FMUs according to the FMI 2.0 standard.
• fmi_adapter treats all inputs, outputs and parameters of a given FMU as floating-point values (ROS message std_msgs/Float64, C++ type double, FMI type fmi2fmi2_real_t).
• A possible end time specified in an FMU is not considered, i.e., the FMU is being evaluated constantly until the corresponding ROS node is shutdown.

Papers

If you want to cite this repository/package, please cite the following book chapter (PDF available at Springer Link) instead:

Ralph Lange, Silvio Traversaro, Oliver Lenord, and Christian Bertsch: Integrating the Functional Mock-Up Interface with ROS and Gazebo. In: Anis Koubaa (ed.) Robot Operating System (ROS): The Complete Reference (Volume 5), Springer, pp. 187–231, 2021.

@INBOOK{Lange_et_al_2021_Integrating_the_FMI_with_ROS_and_Gazebo,
  author = {Ralph Lange and Silvio Traversaro and Oliver Lenord and Christian Bertsch},
  title = {Integrating the Functional Mock-Up Interface with ROS and Gazebo},
  editor = {Anis Koubaa},
  booktitle = {Robot Operating System (ROS): The Complete Reference (Volume 5)},
  year = {2021},
  publisher = {Springer},
  pages = {187--231},
  doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-45956-7_7}
}

Contributing

Want to contribute? Great! You can do so through the standard GitHub pull request model. For large contributions we do encourage you to file a ticket in the GitHub issues tracking system prior to any code development to coordinate with the fmi_adapter development team early in the process. Coordinating up front helps to avoid frustration later on.

Your contribution must be licensed under the Apache-2.0 license, the license used by this project.

Add / retain copyright notices

Include a copyright notice and license in each new file to be contributed, consistent with the style used by this project. If your contribution contains code under the copyright of a third party, document its origin, license, and copyright holders.

Sign your work

This project tracks patch provenance and licensing using the Developer Certificate of Origin 1.1 (DCO) from developercertificate.org and Signed-off-by tags initially developed by the Linux kernel project.

Developer Certificate of Origin
Version 1.1

Copyright (C) 2004, 2006 The Linux Foundation and its contributors.
1 Letterman Drive
Suite D4700
San Francisco, CA, 94129

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
license document, but changing it is not allowed.


Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1

By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:

(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
    have the right to submit it under the open source license
    indicated in the file; or

(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
    of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
    license and I have the right under that license to submit that
    work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
    by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
    permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
    in the file; or

(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
    person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
    it.

(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
    are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
    personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
    maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
    this project or the open source license(s) involved.

With the sign-off in a commit message you certify that you authored the patch or otherwise have the right to submit it under an open source license. The procedure is simple: To certify above Developer’s Certificate of Origin 1.1 for your contribution just append a line

Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>

to every commit message using your real name or your pseudonym and a valid email address.

If you have set your user.name and user.email git configs you can automatically sign the commit by running the git-commit command with the -s option. There may be multiple sign-offs if more than one developer was involved in authoring the contribution.

For a more detailed description of this procedure, please see SubmittingPatches which was extracted from the Linux kernel project, and which is stored in an external repository.

Individual vs. Corporate Contributors

Often employers or academic institution have ownership over code that is written in certain circumstances, so please do due diligence to ensure that you have the right to submit the code.

If you are a developer who is authorized to contribute to fmi_adapter on behalf of your employer, then please use your corporate email address in the Signed-off-by tag. Otherwise please use a personal email address.

Maintain Copyright holder / Contributor list

Each contributor is responsible for identifying themselves in the NOTICE file, the project’s list of copyright holders and authors. Please add the respective information corresponding to the Signed-off-by tag as part of your first pull request.

If you are a developer who is authorized to contribute to fmi_adapter on behalf of your employer, then add your company / organization to the list of copyright holders in the NOTICE file. As author of a corporate contribution you can also add your name and corporate email address as in the Signed-off-by tag.

If your contribution is covered by this project’s DCO’s clause “(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other person who certified (a) or (b) and I have not modified it”, please add the appropriate copyright holder(s) to the NOTICE file as part of your contribution.