Setting up the development environment

Setting up ArgOS

Download and install ARGoS

You can find instructions for downloading and installing ARGoS here:

https://www.argos-sim.info/core.php

Note: It's important to install the correct package for your distribution. Otherwise you might get an error when trying to run experiments which work with loop functions:

[FATAL] Error initializing loop functions
[FATAL] Symbol "foraging_loop_functions" not found

Download ARGoS examples

https://www.argos-sim.info/examples.php

Packages for being able to compile ARGoS

Before installing Argos3

sudo apt-get install cmake libfreeimage-dev libfreeimageplus-dev qt5-default freeglut3-dev libxi-dev libxmu-dev liblua5.3-dev lua5.3

#In case of error: sudo apt --fix-broken install

Installing Fido: C++ Reinforcement learning library

Clone the following repository: https://github.com/andraspatka/Fido (Forked from FidoProject/Fido).

Checkout the release/NoSimulator branch.

Before running make, be sure to add the following compiler option in the Makefile: -fPIC

The first line of the Makefile should look like this:

CXXFLAGS += -std=c++11 -fPIC

Then just simply:

sudo make install

Downloading and compiling the examples

Follow this manual: https://www.argos-sim.info/user_manual.php

Setting up Jetbrains CLion for development

Download CLion from the following link: https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/download/

Note: Clion is a premium Jetbrains product, meaning that you can't download it and use it for free beyond a 30 day trial. However, students and teachers can use it for free. Learn more at: https://www.jetbrains.com/student/

Choose Open then navigate to the experiments directory.

Note: A number of debugging configurations will automatically be detected.

Go to: Run -> Edit configurations

Optionally you can delete the configurations which end with autogen and loop_functions. These will not be needed since if you configure debugging for an experiment which uses loop functions, you can just simply set breakpoints in the loop function source code and the debugging process will function as expected.

To set up a debugging configuration, choose one from the list under CMake Application and then set the following fields:

• Executable -> Select Other -> select the ARGoS executable (Ubuntu default usr/bin/argos3)
• Program arguments: -c scenes/<name of the scene>.argos
• Working directory: Input the project root path

Note: The Working Directory field is optional. You can leave it blank, but then you will have to fill the Program arguments section with the absolute path to the experiment file, such as: -c <absolute_path>.argos

You can set up the run configurations the same way.

Note: If you want to build and run the project from CLion, then you need to make some changes to the .argos file. In each library attribute, replace the root folder build with cmake-build-debug

So basically the root folder in the library attribute should be:

• build if you want to build and run with the help of qswarm.sh
• cmake-build-debug if you want to build and run from CLion

Recommendation: Add *.argos as an xml file association

Files with .argos file extensions use the XML structure. It makes editing them a whole lot easier, if the editor recognizes them as XML files.

To do this in CLion, do the following:

• Go to File -> Settings (ctrl+alt+s)
• Go to Editor -> File Types
• Choose XML from the Recognized File Types list
• Press the + button in the Registered Patterns pane
• Type in *.argos, press OK

Now CLion recognizes .argos files as XML. You now get syntax highlighting, auto complete and hints.

Possible errors

Couldn't load scenes/single_footbot <ticpp.cpp@823>
Description: Failed to open file
File: scenes/single_footbot
Line: 0
Column: 0

Solution: Check if you specified the path to the experiment correctly. Maybe you forgot to add the .argos file extension to the end of the experiment name.

[FATAL] No --help, --version, --config-file or --query options specified.

Solution: Check if you specified the Program arguments correctly.

Directory structure - what to find where

docs

Contains the documentation.

experiments

Contains all of the files needed for building and running an ARGoS experiment.

measurements

Contains the logs from the experiments.

proto

Contains algorithm prototypes written in higher level languagse (JavaScript, Python).

literature

Contains scientific papers regarding the thesis.