Orocos: SimulationThread Class Reference

It behaves (to the SimulationActivity) like a perfect scheduler by executing all activities one after the other in a continuous loop and updating the system time, such that it appears to the activities as they are executed periodically.

All your activities in the same program must be a SimulationActivity for this to work, since the TimeService global time is updated when this thread runs.

By default, the update period is 0.001 seconds. If you want to run with a finer or coarser grained time step, use the Instance() method and supply another period before SimulationActivities are created.


Public Types
typedef double	Seconds
typedef long	secs
typedef long	msecs
typedef long long	nsecs
Public Member Functions
virtual	~SimulationThread ()
	Destructor.
virtual bool	start ()
	Start the thread.
virtual bool	isRunning () const
	Returns true if thread is running or run( unsigned int ) is being invoked.
virtual bool	start (unsigned int maxsteps)
	Only run the simulation maxsteps time steps, then stop the SimulationThread.
virtual bool	run (unsigned int maxsteps)
	Execute maxsteps steps immediately.
bool	timerAdd (detail::TimerInterface *)
	Add an Timer that will be ticked every execution period Once added, a timer can not be removed.
detail::TimerInterface *	timerGet (Seconds period) const
	Get a Timer ticking at a certain period.
virtual bool	run (OS::RunnableInterface *r)
	Run the functionality of one RunnableInterface object.
virtual bool	stop ()
	Stop the thread.
bool	setPeriod (Seconds s)
	Set the periodicity of this thread in seconds.
bool	setPeriod (secs s, nsecs ns)
	Set the periodicity of this thread (seconds, nanoseconds).
bool	setPeriod (TIME_SPEC p)
	Set the periodicity of this thread.
void	getPeriod (secs &s, nsecs &ns) const
	Get the periodicity of this thread (seconds, nanoseconds).
virtual Seconds	getPeriod () const
	Get the periodicity of this thread in seconds.
virtual nsecs	getPeriodNS () const
	Get the periodicity of this thread in nano-seconds.
virtual const char *	getName () const
	Read the name of this task.
virtual RTOS_TASK *	getTask ()
	Get the RTOS_TASK pointer FIXME should this be a const?
virtual bool	setScheduler (int sched_type)
	Change the scheduler policy in which this thread runs.
virtual int	getScheduler () const
	Get the scheduler policy in which this thread runs.
virtual bool	setPriority (int priority)
	Set the priority of this Thread.
virtual int	getPriority () const
	The priority of this Thread.
virtual void	yield ()
	Yields (but to the back of the scheduler queue) the calling thread.
void	setMaxOverrun (int m)
int	getMaxOverrun () const
void	terminate ()
	Exit and destroy the thread.
void	emergencyStop ()
unsigned int	threadNumber () const
	The unique thread number.
Static Public Member Functions
static SimulationThreadPtr	Instance (double period=0.001)
	Create the SimulationThread with a given period.
static bool	Release ()
	Releases the SimulationThread Reference counting might aid in making this call safe.
static TimerThreadPtr	Instance (int priority, double periodicity)
	Create a TimerThread with a given priority and periodicity, using the default scheduler, ORO_SCHED_RT.
static TimerThreadPtr	Instance (int scheduler, int priority, double periodicity)
	Create a TimerThread with a given scheduler, priority and periodicity.
Protected Types
typedef std::vector< detail::TimerInterface * >	TimerList
typedef std::vector< boost::weak_ptr< TimerThread > >	TimerThreadList
	A Boost weak pointer is used to store non-owning pointers to shared objects.
Protected Member Functions
bool	initialize ()
void	step ()
void	finalize ()
	SimulationThread (double period)
	Constructor.
virtual void	continuousStepping (bool yes_no)
virtual bool	setToStop ()
	Use this from within step() to stop this thread.
Protected Attributes
TimerList	clocks
	A list containing all the Timer instances we must tick.
OS::Mutex	lock
	A Activity can not create a activity of same priority from step().
int	threadnb
	Threads are given an unique number, which follows thread creation order.
Static Protected Attributes
static TimerThreadList	TimerThreads
	All timer threads.

Member Function Documentation

static SimulationThreadPtr Instance ( double period = 0.001 ) [static]

Create the SimulationThread with a given period.

Only one SimulationThread can be created.

Parameters:

period

The period in seconds at which the simulation takes steps and updates the TimeService. Only the first invocation of Instance will consider this parameter. The others will ignore it.

static bool Release ( ) [static]

Releases the SimulationThread Reference counting might aid in making this call safe.

Returns:: true on success, false on failure

virtual bool start ( unsigned int maxsteps ) [virtual]

Only run the simulation maxsteps time steps, then stop the SimulationThread.

Returns:: false if maxsteps == 0 or if thread could not be started.

virtual bool run ( unsigned int maxsteps ) [virtual]

Execute maxsteps steps immediately.

This function will call the step() functions maxsteps times, without requiring start() or stop() to be called before or after. The thread is thus not used.

Returns:: false if maxsteps == 0

Postcondition:: When run() returns, step() has been called maxsteps times.

virtual bool run ( OS::RunnableInterface * r ) [virtual, inherited]

Run the functionality of one RunnableInterface object.

Only one RunnableInterface object can be run, the old one is disconnected.

Parameters:

The object to run or zero to clear.

Returns:: true if accepted, false if the thread is running.

Implements ThreadInterface.

virtual bool setScheduler ( int sched_type ) [virtual, inherited]

Change the scheduler policy in which this thread runs.

Parameters:

sched_type

An OS-specific value which selects a scheduler. Orocos requires that these two values are available:

ORO_SCHED_RT: Hint the OS that this thread should be scheduled as a priority or real-time process.
ORO_SCHED_OTHER: Hint the OS that this thread should not be scheduled as a priority or real-time process.

Your OS can in addition provide other sched_type's which map more naturally to the schedulers present. If your OS does not make a distinction between real-time and other, both values may map to the same scheduler type.

Returns:: true if the change could be made.

Implements ThreadInterface.

virtual int getScheduler ( ) const [virtual, inherited]

Get the scheduler policy in which this thread runs.

Returns:: An OS-specific value which represents the used scheduler.

See also:: setScheduler

Implements ThreadInterface.

virtual bool setPriority ( int priority ) [virtual, inherited]

Set the priority of this Thread.

Parameters:

priority

The priority given upon construction of this thread. It has to be interpreted in the current OS scheduler.

See also:: setScheduler

Implements ThreadInterface.

virtual int getPriority ( ) const [virtual, inherited]

The priority of this Thread.

Returns:: The priority given upon construction of this thread or set with setPriority. The returned number has to be interpreted in the current OS scheduler.

See also:: setScheduler

Implements ThreadInterface.

void terminate ( ) [inherited]

Exit and destroy the thread.

Precondition:: this is only called from within the destructor.

Postcondition:: the thread does no longer exist.

virtual bool setToStop ( ) [protected, virtual, inherited]

Use this from within step() to stop this thread.

This function will call finalize() as well, thus it is advised to call this function as the last statement in your step().

Member Data Documentation

TimerList clocks [protected, inherited]

A list containing all the Timer instances we must tick.

See also:: Timer

OS::Mutex lock [mutable, protected, inherited]

A Activity can not create a activity of same priority from step().

If so a deadlock will occur.

int threadnb [protected, inherited]

Threads are given an unique number, which follows thread creation order.

See also:: OS::threads

SimulationThread Class Reference

Detailed Description

Public Types

Public Member Functions

Static Public Member Functions

Protected Types

Protected Member Functions

Protected Attributes

Static Protected Attributes

Member Function Documentation

Member Data Documentation