How to use configuration files for identical robots?

asked 2012-02-28 05:23:07 -0500

I have a few configuration files containing calibrations, configurations, camera_infos for a set of identical robots.

Currently, the launch files will read in the computer's hostname as an environment variable so it knows to look in code repo/{$HOSTNAME}/config for that robot's parameters.

This works well enough for the runtime system, but then I'm not sure what's the best way to use those configurations when playing back bags recorded on those robots. Should I change the environment variable to be something like $ROBOT_HOSTNAME so that the system doesn't sometimes set it? This would allow the person to change the variable on their development machine before playing a bag from a specific robot. Is there something better I could do?

This question is related to my other question about recording configuration, but this one also has the runtime launch component.

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answered 2012-02-28 06:07:13 -0500

joq
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Environment variables are awkward. I like to avoid them, when I can.

How about collecting all the configuration data for each robot in a separate package? Store the relevant package name in a configuration file under /etc/ or ~. The per-user settings could even override the per-system one.