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The MC@NLO 2.2 Event Generator
This is the user's manual of MC@NLO 2.2. This package is a practical
implementation, based upon the HERWIG event generator, of the MC@NLO formalism,
which allows one to incorporate NLO QCD matrix elements consistently into a
parton shower framework. Processes available in this version include the
hadroproduction of Higgs bosons, single vector bosons, vector boson pairs, and
heavy quark-antiquark pairs. This document is self-contained, but we emphasise
the main differences with respect to previous versions.Comment: 17 pages, no figures. Version 2 has more details on some features.
Program available at http://www.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk/theory/webber/MCatNLO
Reducing the Barrier to Entry of Complex Robotic Software: a MoveIt! Case Study
Developing robot agnostic software frameworks involves synthesizing the
disparate fields of robotic theory and software engineering while
simultaneously accounting for a large variability in hardware designs and
control paradigms. As the capabilities of robotic software frameworks increase,
the setup difficulty and learning curve for new users also increase. If the
entry barriers for configuring and using the software on robots is too high,
even the most powerful of frameworks are useless. A growing need exists in
robotic software engineering to aid users in getting started with, and
customizing, the software framework as necessary for particular robotic
applications. In this paper a case study is presented for the best practices
found for lowering the barrier of entry in the MoveIt! framework, an
open-source tool for mobile manipulation in ROS, that allows users to 1)
quickly get basic motion planning functionality with minimal initial setup, 2)
automate its configuration and optimization, and 3) easily customize its
components. A graphical interface that assists the user in configuring MoveIt!
is the cornerstone of our approach, coupled with the use of an existing
standardized robot model for input, automatically generated robot-specific
configuration files, and a plugin-based architecture for extensibility. These
best practices are summarized into a set of barrier to entry design principles
applicable to other robotic software. The approaches for lowering the entry
barrier are evaluated by usage statistics, a user survey, and compared against
our design objectives for their effectiveness to users
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