SLAM Visualization for Player
=============================
Copyright (C) Ziyan Zhou 2009 <zhou@ziyan.info>

Although, other platforms are supported in theory, the project has only been
tested on linux platform, specifically Ubuntu Jaunty. It is highly recommended
that you try to compile and run it on a linux platform first.

Source
------

The project is open source under GPL at:
http://svn.ziyan.info/svn/default/trunk/slam

Screenshots
-----------
http://picasaweb.google.com/ziyan.info/ZiyanSBlog

Prerequisite
------------

To compile and execute the program, these packages are needed:

	* Player v2.1.2: the source can be found at http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/
	* Qt4: package name libqt4-dev, or google its source
	* OpenGL
	* Optionally Stage v2.1.1: can be found at the same place as the Player

Compilation
-----------                
To compile the project, first create the Makefile by running:
	qmake -unix
                        
Then, compile the program by running:
	make
                                
Execution
---------
                                
The program prints out usage message if no argument is supplied:
	Usage: ./slam <map-file> [hostname] [port]

There are two modes that the program operates in:

	* When no hostname is supplied, the program simply plays back the map
	  file specified.
	* When hostname is supplied, the program creates the map file if it
	  does not exist, or continue mapping based on the supplied map file.
	  The program will save the map into the map file when the visualizer
	  window is closed. Hitting ctrl+C will result in data loss.

Simulation
----------

Since real robot is hard to find and play with, the project provides a
simulation configuration. Stage is needed to complete this part. In the
stage/ directory, a script named stage.sh is provided for starting up the
simulation. Another script named joystick.sh is provided for controlling the
robot using keyboard. After both scripts are up and running, you may start
the visualizer using localhost as the hostname argument.

Play Recordings
---------------

The program can load previously built map and allow interactive playback.
This option does not require stage to be present. The recorded data includes
3D texture which is very large. These recoding are stored as zip files in
storage/. Before playing those recordings, the corresponding zip file has to
be decompressed. For example, to playback sim.zip, first unzip sim.zip, then
go back up one directory and run ./slam storage/sim. You can use mouse to
interact with the recorded map. sim.zip and test.zip contains simulated maps
with no textures, while other zips contains 3D textures.

To get these recording, download them here:
http://drop.io/ghszhux