Add coupled_pendulum tutorial and tests

[martinaxgloria]

This PR adds the coupled_pendulum tutorial. Tested:

coupled_pendulum.mp4

It's a draft PR since the corresponding unit test is still missing.

cc @xela-95 @traversaro @Nicogene

[traversaro]

Somewhere here we should document that this model has a runtime dependency on icub-main.

[traversaro]

It's a draft PR since the corresponding unit test is still missing.

If you do not have time to add a unit test, we can also just add a tutorial. Let's avoid that further enhancement prevent us to get improvements (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good).

[martinaxgloria]

If you do not have time to add a unit test, we can also just add a tutorial. Let's avoid that further enhancement prevent us to get improvements (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good).

Hi @traversaro, sorry for the delay. I'm going to add the unit test by the end of the day, at the latest by tomorrow if you're fine

[traversaro]

No problem, take your time, I just was going through the open issues and PRs.

[martinaxgloria]

Hi @traversaro, at the end I added the coupled pendulum within the tests of the controlBoard (both position and position direct) and I also added the test for checking that the tutorial runs without errors. Since the tutorial depends on icub-main, I protected it with an option that is ON if icub-main is found, OFF otherwise. Please, let me know if it is the intended behavior, thanks!

cc @Nicogene @xela-95

[traversaro]

There is something I do not understand. The CheckPositionTrackingWithTrajectoryGenerationUsingPendulumModel depends as well from ICUB, but it is not disabled by the CMake option. Nevertheless the CI tests (where ICUB is not installed) do not pass. Can you double check what is going on?

Can you also modify the PR title to mention "Add coupled_pendulum tutorial and tests"?

[traversaro]

I think this logic can be useful for all tests, so I think we can move it upper in the tests CMakeList.txt (see the comment there).

[traversaro]

For what regards testing:

• The apt test requires to compile icub-main from source, so I would not enable icub-main tests there
• The conda-forge-ci test using micromamba is mostly superseded by the pixi test, so I would not update it.
• I think instead it make sense to add the icub-main dependency and the -DGZ_SIM_YARP_PLUGINS_ENABLE_TESTS_WITH_ICUB_MAIN:BOOL=ON option to the pixi project (this will be automatically then used in CI)

If you need any in person clarification feel free to ask me.

[xela-95]

Great! Thanks @martinaxgloria ! I have nothing to add to the @traversaro suggestions

[martinaxgloria]

The CI is still failing due to:

Error:  |yarp.os.YarpPluginSettings| Cannot find "couplingICubEye" plugin (not built in, and no .ini file found for it)Check that YARP_DATA_DIRS leads to at least one directory with plugins/couplingICubEye.ini or share/yarp/plugins/couplingICubEye.ini in it

This is maybe because the couplingICubEye PR was done versus devel, so it doesn't appear within the master branch of icub-main. With @xela-95 we tried to add icub-main dependency in pixi.toml as:

icub-main = { git = "https://github.com/robotology/icub-main.git", rev = "devel"}

but pixi install failed locally with this error:

Error:
  × failed to parse project from /home/mgloria/iit/robotology-superbuild/src/gz-sim-yarp-plugins/pixi.toml: source
  │ dependencies are used in the feature 'default', but the `pixi-build` preview feature is not enabled

cc @traversaro

[traversaro]

Good point! We still need to release icub-main with coupling support. pixi build support for icub-main would be cool to have at some point, but it will probably take a bit more time. At this point if we are not going to release icub-main in a short time, we can disable the test for now and enable it again once icub-main with coupling support is released?

[martinaxgloria]

At this point if we are not going to release icub-main in a short time, we can disable the test for now and enable it again once icub-main with coupling support is released?

I don't know when the new tag will be released (cc @Nicogene @pattacini), but if you all agree for me it's ok to disable it until that moment

[pattacini]

I don't know when the new tag will be released (cc @Nicogene @pattacini), but if you all agree for me it's ok to disable it until that moment

Discussed F2F w/ @traversaro; let's wait for the Distro 2025.02 to tag icub-main.

[martinaxgloria]

Ok, since we are waiting for the distro to tag icub-main we have two possibilities:

1. keep this PR open (I could put it in draft) until the new tag with the couplingICubEye will be released
2. disabled the test so that we can close this PR and then open another one to re-enable it

[pattacini]

2. disabled the test so that we can close this PR and then open another one to re-enable it

Probably, option 2 is the best.

[traversaro]

Thanks! Good to go for me once the PR is happy. We will address eventual test problems once we enable the tests.

[xela-95]

Thanks! Merging then 🚀