BlocSim

University of Queensland - Bachelor of Engineering Thesis

Bridging Sketch and Simulation of Block Diagram Modelled Systems (pdf)

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Installation

BlocSim is a webserver running Python 2.7. It requires a webcam and a number of third-party Python packages.

###Mosquitto

You may wish to install a Mosquitto client to view/verify the Publish/Subscribe block model output.

Regardless, you do have to install a Mosquitto broker.

• Ubuntu:

   sudo apt-get install mosquitto mosquitto-clients
  

• OSX:

   brew install c-ares mosquitto mosquitto-clients
   /usr/local/sbin/mosquitto -c /usr/local/etc/mosquitto/mosquitto.conf
   mkdir -p ~/Library/LaunchAgents
   ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/mosquitto/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents
   launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mosquitto.plist
  

###Pip Package Manager

Most packages can be installed using pip, a python package installer.

• pip install <package> - install

###Virtualenv

You may wish to install BlocSim's dependencies in a standalone python installation using virtualenv.

• virtualenv - install

###OSX - Homebrew

You'll need to install Homebrew, an extremely useful general-purpose install tool.

    ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/go/install)" && brew doctor
    brew install python

Usage:

    brew install <program/library>

###Windows - Binaries

Pre-compiled executable installers are available for many packages

###Package listing

• OpenCV 2.4 - info

  • ubuntu install script (downloads & compiles source)
  • osx install - brew tap homebrew/science && brew install opencv
  • windows install

• numpy - package

• tornado - package

• sockjs-tornado - package

• jsonrpclib - package

• tornadorpc - package

• Pillow - package

  • osx install:

      brew install libtiff libjpeg webp littlecms && sudo pip install Pillow
    

  • Ubuntu install:

      sudo apt-get install tk-dev
      sudo apt-get install tcl-dev
      sudo pip install python-tk
      sudo pip install -I Pillow
    

• pickleDB - package

• mosquitto - package

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Run Demo

• Start the webserver

   cd demo && ./blocsim.py
  

• Open the control panel in your browser (Chrome, Firefox or Safari)

   localhost:8080
  

• Subscribe to the Mosquitto messages being published

   mosquitto_sub -t "blocsim"
  

• Control BlocSim remotely via JSON-RPC calls

   localhost:8080/rpc
  
   shutdown
   save_image
   save_state
   get_config
   set_config( key, value )
   db_load
   db_save
   db_defaults
   db_load_defaults
   db_save_defaults
   cycle_webcam
   disconnect_webcam
  
   Python example:
    >> from jsonrpclib import Server
    >> server = Server('http://localhost:8080/rpc')
    >> print server.get_config()
    >> # server.<procedure call>(<args>)
  

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File Structure

• README.md - you are here

• LICENSE - GPL v2 license

• test/ - pre-demo testing files

• demo/ - prototype used for thesis demonstration

config/ - keystore database is saved here

config.db, defaults.db - JSON keystores for configuration/calibration options

static/ - static files available to webserver

css/ - stylesheets

style.css - custom styles

blocsim-style/ - customised JQuery-UI theme built here

images/ - saved webcam images appear here

<timestamp>.jpg

frame.jpg - copy of most recently saved image

js/ - folder containing jquery, jquery-ui, sockjs and custom javascript

style.js - UI configuration & visuals

scripts.js - UI function & server interaction

saves/ - grouped into folders

state_<timestamp>/

frame[1..16].jpg - images showing all computer vision steps

config.db - exported config keystore (JSON)

block-model.json - exported block diagram model (JSON)

templates/ - dynamic 'template' files available to webserver (html files)

*.html

cvcommon.py - opencv utility file

notes.py - note-taking, in python comment form

blocsim.py - main executable file; majority of Python code