00001 /** \page mrpt-base Library overview: mrpt-base 00002 * 00003 00004 <small> <a href="index.html#libs">Back to list of libraries</a> </small> 00005 <br> 00006 00007 <h2>mrpt-base</h2> 00008 <hr> 00009 00010 This is the most fundamental library in MRPT, since it provides a vast amount of utilities and OS-abstraction classes upon which 00011 the rest of MRPT is built. Here resides critical functionality such as mathematics, linear algebra, serialization, smart pointers 00012 and multi-threading. 00013 00014 This library comprises classes in a number of namespaces, briefly described below (click on the namespaces names to see the 00015 complete list of its classes): 00016 00017 00018 <h3>mrpt::poses</h3> 00019 00020 A comprehensive collection of geometry-related classes to represent all kind of 2D and 3D geomtry transformations in different formats 00021 (Euler angles, rotation matrices, quaternions), as well as networks of pose constrains (as used typically in SLAM problems). 00022 00023 There are also implemented representations for probability distributions over all of these transformations, in a generic way that 00024 allow mono and multi-modal Gaussians and particle-based representations. 00025 00026 Graphs of pose constraints are also defined in this library, via a generic template mrpt::poses::CNetworkOfPoses, capable 00027 of reading and writing to both binary and <a href="http://www.mrpt.org/Robotics_file_formats" >text pose-graph file</a> formats. 00028 Predefined typedefs exist for: 00029 - mrpt::poses::CNetworkOfPoses2D -> 2D graphs (x,y,phi), covariance matrix. 00030 - mrpt::poses::CNetworkOfPoses3D -> 3D graphs (x,y,z,yaw,pitch,roll), covariance matrix. 00031 - mrpt::poses::CNetworkOfPoses2DInf -> 2D graphs (x,y,phi), inverse covariance (information) matrix. 00032 - mrpt::poses::CNetworkOfPoses3DInf -> 3D graphs (x,y,z,yaw,pitch,roll), inverse covariance (information) matrix. 00033 00034 See mrpt::poses for the complete list of classes here. 00035 00036 00037 <h3>mrpt::utils</h3> 00038 00039 <ul> 00040 <li><b>RTTI (RunTime Type Information):</b> A cross-platform, compiler-independent RTTI system is built around the base class 00041 mrpt::utils::CObject.</li> 00042 00043 <li><b>Smart pointers:</b> Based on the STLplus library, any class CFoo inheriting from CObject, automatically has an associated smart 00044 pointer class CFooPtr. MRPT implements advanced smart pointers capable of multi-thread safe usage and smart pointer typecasting with 00045 runtime check for correct castings (<a href="http://www.mrpt.org/Smart_pointers" >tutorial</a>).</li> 00046 00047 <li><b>Image handling:</b> The class mrpt::utils::CImage represents a wrapper around OpenCV IplImage's, plus extra functionality 00048 such as on-the-fly loading of images stored in disk upon first usage. The internal IplImage is always available so OpenCV's functions can 00049 be still used to operate on MRPT images. </li> 00050 00051 <li><b>Serialization/Persistence:</b> Object serialization in a simple but powerful (including versioning) format 00052 is supported by dozens of MRPT classes, all based on mrpt::utils::CSerializable. </li> 00053 00054 <li><b>Streams:</b> Stream classes (see the base mrpt::utils::CStream) allow serialization of MRPT objects. There are classes 00055 for tranparent GZ-compressed files, sockets, serial ports, etc. </li> 00056 00057 <li><b>XML-based databases:</b> Simple databases can be mantained, loaded and saved to files with mrpt::utils::CSimpleDatabase. </li> 00058 00059 <li><b>Name-based argument passing:</b> See the structure mrpt::utils::TParameters </li> 00060 00061 <li><b>Configuration files:</b> There is one base virtual class (mrpt::utils::CConfigFileBase) which can be used to read/write configuration 00062 files (including basic types, vectors, matrices,...) from any "configuration source" transparently (an actual configuration file, a text block 00063 created on the fly, etc.). </li> 00064 00065 00066 </ul> 00067 00068 <h3>mrpt::math</h3> 00069 00070 MRPT defines a number of generic <i> math containers</i>, which are: 00071 00072 <ul> 00073 <li><b>Matrices:</b> Dynamic-size matrices (see mrpt::math::CMatrixDouble) and compile-time fixed-size matrices (see mrpt::math::CMatrixFixedNumeric, mrpt::math::CMatrixDouble33, etc.). </li> 00074 <li><b>Vectors:</b> Dynamic-size vectors. See mrpt::vector_double, which inherits from a standard STL vector<double>. </li> 00075 <li><b>Arrays:</b> Fixed-size vectors, just like plain C arrays but with support for STL-like iterators and much more. See mrpt::math::CArrayDouble<>. </li> 00076 </ul> 00077 00078 For a more in-depth description of these types, and their relation to the base Eigen classes, 00079 read <a href="http://www.mrpt.org/Matrices_vectors_arrays_and_Linear_Algebra_MRPT_and_Eigen_classes" >this page</a>. 00080 00081 Notice that fixed-size containers should be preferred where possible, since they allow more compile-time optimizations. 00082 00083 Apart from the containers, this namespace contains much more functionality: 00084 00085 <ul> 00086 <li>A templatized RANSAC algorithm. </li> 00087 <li>Probability distribution functions. </li> 00088 <li>Statistics: mean, covariance, covariance of weighted samples, etc... from sets of data.</li> 00089 <li>A huge amount of geometry-related functions: Lines (mrpt::math::TLine3D), planes (mrpt::math::TPlane3D), segments, polygons, intersections between them, etc. </li> 00090 <li>Graph-related stuff: generic directed graphs (mrpt::math::CDirectedGraph) and trees (mrpt::math::CDirectedTree).</li> 00091 <li>PDF transformations (uncertainty propagation): See mrpt::math::transform_gaussian_linear, mrpt::math::transform_gaussian_montecarlo, mrpt::math::transform_gaussian_unscented.</li> 00092 </ul> 00093 00094 00095 00096 <h3>mrpt::synch</h3> 00097 00098 This namespace includes threading tools such as critical sections, semaphores or utilities such as the template mrpt::synch::CThreadSafeVariable 00099 that converts any variable into a pair variable-critical section. 00100 00101 00102 <h3>mrpt::system</h3> 00103 00104 Here can be found functions for filesystem managing, watching directories, creating and handling threads in an OS-independent way, etc. 00105 00106 00107 <h3>mrpt::compress</h3> 00108 00109 GZip compression methods can be found in this namespace. 00110 00111 00112 */ 00113
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