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gazebosim / gazebo-classic

Gazebo classic. For the latest version, see https://github.com/gazebosim/gz-sim
http://classic.gazebosim.org/
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Rename 'gps' sensor to 'gnss' #1296

Open osrf-migration opened 9 years ago

osrf-migration commented 9 years ago

Original report (archived issue) by Andrew Symington (Bitbucket: asymingt).

This may be a bit of a controversial, and perhaps a bit of a pedantic, point. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is one of several different Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Many of the newer GNSS chipsets include support for not only GPS (USA), but also the GLONASS (Russian) and Galileo (EU) systems. I expect that the QZSS (Japan) and Compass (China) systems will also become more widely-supported in the not too distant future. Some examples of newer chipsets...

Electing the nomenclature 'gps' for a GNSS sensor in Gazebo suggests that the sensor is restricted to one satellite system, whereas it may not be.

I'm not too sure how difficult the change would be, and if it is worth all of the hassle it may create. However, it may be good to keep this in mind if an opportunity arises where it can be renamed without too much overhead.

The reason I am being pedantic about this is that I have written a single-frequency multi-constellation GNSS error model, which I'd like to repackage as a sensor plugin. I'm in the process of testing the model on real data, and I will distribute it as a separate project from CRATES when it's in good shape / the paper is written :)

osrf-migration commented 9 years ago

Original comment by Andrew Symington (Bitbucket: asymingt).

osrf-migration commented 9 years ago

Original comment by Jose Luis Rivero (Bitbucket: Jose Luis Rivero, GitHub: j-rivero).

Being pendantic is not a bad thing but we should consider that for a large majority of users the 'GPS' word is probably crucial to find the sensor that they plan to use. So my vote goes to somewhat maintain the word GPS, but find a way of adding the GNSS concept. Brainstorming: GPS/GNSS, GNSS-GPS, MultiSatelliteGPS, ...

osrf-migration commented 9 years ago

Original comment by Steve Peters (Bitbucket: Steven Peters, GitHub: scpeters).

The gps name is in both sdformat and Gazebo. Personally, I would be fine with changing the name within the code to GNSS, since it is a more general name.

As long as we provide sufficient documentation / tutorials about simulating GNSS / GPS sensors, I think our users will be ok.

osrf-migration commented 9 years ago

Original comment by Andrew Symington (Bitbucket: asymingt).

I agree that there's value in keeping things intuitive for the end user. I don't suppose that there is an option to create tag synonyms in SDF. That would be quite handy for this edge case. I do think, however, there should be a nomenclature match between SDF and Gazebo. So, I don't think that a GNSS rename in Gazebo source is wise.

osrf-migration commented 9 years ago

Original comment by Steve Peters (Bitbucket: Steven Peters, GitHub: scpeters).

I'm just getting back now from an extended family leave. I think the following ROS discussion is relevant to this issue:

https://github.com/ros-infrastructure/rep/pull/88

osrf-migration commented 9 years ago

Original comment by Andrew Symington (Bitbucket: asymingt).

Thanks, Steven. I've added my ten cents worth to the conversation! We should continue out discussion about sensor noise models! I'm finally in a position where I can continue working on stuff, now that I've submitted my AAMAS paper.

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