Command and Real-time Acquisition in Parallelized PYthon (CRAPPY)

This package aims to provide an open-source software canvas for developing experimental tests in a versatile and accessible way.

Presentation

Crappy is developed at the LaMCube, a mechanical research laboratory based in Lille, France to provide a powerful and easy-to-use framework for materials testing.

In order to understand the mechanical behaviour of materials, we tend to perform tests with more and more sensors and actuators from various suppliers. There's thus an increasing need to drive these devices in a synchronized way while managing the high complexity of the setups.

As we are one step ahead of industrials, the commercially available testing solutions may also not be well-suited to our objectives. Custom software solutions thus need to be developed in order to further improve our tests.

These are the original purposes of Crappy : providing a framework for controlling tests and driving hardware in a synchronized and supplier-independent software environment.

Citing Crappy

If Crappy has been of help in your research, please reference it in your academic publications by citing the following article :

• Couty V., Witz J-F., Martel C. et al., Command and Real-Time Acquisition in Parallelized Python, a Python module for experimental setups, SoftwareX 16, 2021, DOI: 10.1016/j.softx.2021.100848. (publisher link)

Requirements

To install Crappy you will need Python 3 (3.6 or higher) with the following modules :

• Numpy (1.19.0 or higher)

In addition, other modules are necessary for a wide range of applications in Crappy without being mandatory for installing the module. The main ones are Matplotlib, openCV, pyserial and Tk.

Installation

Tested on Windows 10, Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04, and MacOS Sierra. Simply run in a terminal (with Python installed) :

pip install crappy

or

pip3 install crappy

Refer to the dedicated installation section of the documentation for more details.

Documentation

The latest versions of the documentation can be accessed on our ReadTheDocs page. It contains descriptions of Crappy's features, tutorials, and other useful information.

Bug reports

Please report bugs, issues, ask for help or give feedback in the dedicated github section.

License information

Refer to the file LICENSE.txt for information on the history of this software, terms & conditions for usage, and a disclaimer of all warranties.