Multivariate Optimization Improvement

This release generalizes multivariable optimization to any arbitrary number of dimensions, and fixes bugs in the previous multivariate optimization process.

It also implements some general bugfixes, such as a squashing a bug that causes startup crash in Matlab r2020b+ and squashing a bug related to loading large system files.

Modal chains

This code adds support for specifying deformation modes for n-link chains, and also provides a cleaner interface for specifying the grids on which the system shape spaces should be illustrated.

Fixes bug related to long filenames

Matlab restricts function names to 63 characters. The filenames created by gait_gui_optimize could exceed this limit, causing errors. The program now hashes the filenames (but preserves the information about which inputs were used to generate the gait as the displayname inside the file).

Backwards compatibility

Added code so that "s.finite_element_density" (from some old sysf_ files) propagates to "s.density.finite_element" (the regularized method for setting grid resolutions). The finite element density is used when calculating the minimum-perturbation coordinates.

Granular 3-link now can be animated and illustrated

Three-link granular system sysf file now has s.geometry and s.visual fields, and so can be animated and produce an illustrate_shape_space plot.

Further symbolic kinematics improvements

Added a few more "simplify" commands into the N_link_chain code, which help prevent Matlab from passing overly-complicated trigonometric terms through the calculations.

Improved handling of Symbolic input to kinematics code

Adjoint action code now performs 50-step simplification of symbolic forms (which eliminates several trigonometric combinations that matlab doesn't directly recognize as being equal to 1).

N_link_chain and Nonholonomic connection code are now more robust to mixed symbolic and numeric inputs (e.g., a chain with symbolic lengths for the links, but evaluated at a numerically-specified set of joint angles).

Scaling fixes

Fixed handling of non-unit-length chains and continuous backbones.

This fix also fixes Illustrate Shapespace plots in optimized coordinates.

Dependencies for system files have been updated to point at Geometry and Physics code.

Arctangent-weighting away from singularities when optimizing coordinates restored for systems with nonholonomic constraints (e.g., kinematic snake).

Kinematics engine, robust optimization, animation: Robustness improvements

This release incorporates a higher-level kinematics engine, robust optimization of gait kinematics, and easy animation of the system during gaits.

5.5.2 has user interface enhancements to make it more robust to edge-case combinations of input selections.

Kinematics engine, robust optimization, animation: Robustness improvements

This release incorporates a higher-level kinematics engine, robust optimization of gait kinematics, and easy animation of the system during gaits.

5.5.1 has user interface enhancements to make it more robust to edge-case combinations of input selections.