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Table of Contents > QUARC > Release Notes

QUARC 2018

These release notes describe the new features and changes introduced in QUARC 2018. They are divided into the sections enumerated below.

New Software Compatibility

QUARC 2018 has introduced compatibility with the following third-party software.

MATLAB R2017b

Compatibility with MATLAB, Simulink, and Simulink Coder R2017b has been added.

MATLAB R2018a

Compatibility with MATLAB, Simulink, and Simulink Coder R2018a has been added.

MATLAB R2018b

Compatibility with MATLAB, Simulink, and Simulink Coder R2018b has been added.

Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 (v15.0)

Compatibility with Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Professional/Community Editions have been added.

New Targets

QUARC 2018 now supports the following new targets.

Linux x64 Target

The QUARC Linux x64 Target supports one of the newest Quanser embedded Linux targets. Refer to QUARC Linux x64 Target for details. This target is intended for the Quanser QDrone.

Linux RT ARMv7 Target

The QUARC Linux RT ARMv7 Target supports one of the newest Quanser embedded Linux targets. Refer to QUARC Linux RT ARMv7 Target for details. This target is intended for the NI ELVIS III platform or the NI myRIO platform.

New Cards Supported

The full list of all the data acquisition cards supported by QUARC 2018 is given by the following link. QUARC 2018 may now also interface to the cards listed below.

Quanser QDrone

Added support for the Quanser QDrone card.

Quanser Controls Board for NI ELVIS III

Added support for the Quanser Controls Board for NI ELVIS III card, which is a top board for the NI ELVIS III platform.

Default FPGA Personality for NI ELVIS III

Added support for the Default FPGA Personality for NI ELVIS III card, which allows the use of NI ELVIS III as general purpose platform using the default FPGA personality as supplied by National Instruments.

Default FPGA Personality for NI myRIO 1900

Added support for the Default FPGA Personality for NI myRIO 1900 card, which allows the use of NI myRIO as general purpose platform using the default FPGA personality as supplied by National Instruments.

New Demonstrations

The QUARC demonstrations added in QUARC 2018 are listed below.

Encoder Demonstrations

QUARC Encoder Demo

The QUARC Encoder Demo example shows how to reads the encoder readings, as well as commands the actuator that is connected to the encoder. This sets up the infrastructure for closed-loop controls.

New Blocks

New blocks have been added to the QUARC Targets library in QUARC 2018. The new blocks are listed below.

Discrete Blocks

Memory

The Memory block holds and delays its input for one major timestep. This version of the block includes support for variable-size signals.

Host Blocks

Host Disk

The Host Disk block can be used to write data to disk on the host, even when the Simulink model is not connected.

Host Heartbeat

The Host Heartbeat block can be used to monitor the health of a host connection.

Image Processing Blocks

Image Compare

The Image Compare block compares pixels of an image to given ranges.

Image Convert

The Image Convert block converts one image format to another.

Image Find Corners

The Image Find Corners block finds corners within an image.

Image Find Objects

The Image Find Objects block finds objects within an image.

Image Optical Flow

The Image Optical Flow blocks computes the optical flow between successive images.

Math Operations Blocks

Angle and Axis from Rotation Matrix

The Angle and Axis from Rotation Matrix block converts a rotation matrix to the equivalent rotation angle about a fixed axis.

Angle and Axis to Rotation Matrix

The Angle and Axis to Rotation Matrix block converts a rotation by an angle about an arbitrary axis into a rotation matrix.

Basis from Rotation Matrix

The Basis from Rotation Matrix block converts a rotation matrix to a basis of three unit vectors.

Basis to Rotation Matrix

The Basis to Rotation Matrix block converts a basis of three unit vectors to a rotation matrix.

Euler Angles from Rotation Matrix

The Euler Angles from Rotation Matrix block converts a rotation matrix to an Euler angle representation.

Euler Angles to Rotation Matrix

The Euler Angles to Rotation Matrix block creates a rotation matrix from an Euler angle representation.

Quaternion from Euler Angles

The Quaternion from Euler Angles block creates a quaternion from an Euler angle representation.

Quaternion from Rotation Matrix

The Quaternion from Rotation Matrix block creates a quaternion from a rotation matrix representation.

Quaternion to Euler Angles

The Quaternion to Euler Angles block converts a quaternion to an Euler angle representation.

Quaternion to Rotation Matrix

The Quaternion to Rotation Matrix block converts a quaternion to a rotation matrix.

Trace

The Trace block computes the trace of a square matrix.

Transformation from Euler Angles

The Transformation from Euler Angles block creates a homogeneous transformation from an Euler angle representation.

Vector from Skew Symmetric Matrix

The Vector from Skew Symmetric Matrix block extracts a 3-vector from a skew-symmetric matrix.

Vector to Skew Symmetric Matrix

The Vector to Skew Symmetric Matrix block converts a 3-vector to a skew-symmetric matrix.

Mavlink Blocks

Mavlink Initialize

The Mavlink Initialize block connects to an auto-pilot which uses the Mavlink protocol.

Mavlink Enumeration

The Mavlink Enumeration block allows Mavlink enumeration constants to be used symbolically in the diagram.

Mavlink Receive

The Mavlink Receive block receives Mavlink packets from one or more systems.

Mavlink Send

The Mavlink Send block sends Mavlink packets to one or more systems.

Multimedia Blocks

Video Compressed Display

The Video Compressed Display block displays video images in a window on the host, using compression to minimize bandwidth.

Video3D Initialize

The Video3D Initialize block initializes a 3D imaging device, such as an RGBD camera.

Video3D Capture

The Video3D Capture block captures images from a 3D imaging device, such as an RGBD camera.

Ports & Subsystems Blocks

Host Subsystem

The Host Subsystem block is a subsystem that executes on the host rather than the target. However, it must be a sink. It cannot contain

Outport

MATLAB Command Line

Click to copy the following command line to the clipboard. Then paste it in the MATLAB Command Window:

doc('Outport');
blocks. It also cannot contain blocks with continuous states. However, it can be used to do post-processing of signals on the host.

Serial Receiver Blocks

Serial Receiver Read

The Serial Receiver Read block receives RC commands from a serial receiver.

Serial Receiver Write

The Serial Receiver Write block emulates a serial receiver.

Signal Routing Blocks

Channel

The Channel block may be used to send large signals to Simulink. It is particularly useful for images.

Improved Features

Some of the features improved in QUARC 2018 are enumerated below. There are a great many miscellaneous improvements that have not been listed. Only some of the highlights are listed below.

Image Compress block

The compression quality is now optionally available as an external input port on the Image Compress block. This feature allows the compression quality to be controlled dynamically. For example, it may be useful to make the compression quality a function of the WiFi signal strength so that less bandwidth is required when transmitting a video signal over a weak connection.

To Host File block enhancements

The To Host File block now supports saving the data as a video stream to an MP4 or WMV file. It also supports complex signals now with most output formats.

Joint Control Robot - 4 DOF

The Joint Control Robot - 4 DOF (formerly known as Kinova 4-DOF MICO Robot, see the Miscellaneous section for more details about the name change) can now be controlled in torque mode, the Kinova 4-DOF MICO Read block would return the commanded joint control modes, and the Kinova 4-DOF MICO Write block now accepts control mode and joint torque commands as input to the block.

Optitrack blocks software installation

The recommended version of the NaturalPoint's Motive software is now version 2.0.1 for 64-bit systems, or 1.9.0 for 32-bit systems. Installation instructions have been updated in the OptiTrack Point Cloud block and OptiTrack Trackables help pages.

Quanser QBot 2

Added support for reading the docking IR sensors of the Quanser QBot 2 by introducing 18 new digital input signals.

Miscellaneous

The following shows the miscellaneous changes in QUARC 2018.

Version

Starting with QUARC 2018, the QUARC version is renamed to follow the year of the release.

Internal version number for QUARC 2018 is 2.7.

Joint Control Robot

The Kinova 4-DOF MICO Robot and Kinova 6-DOF MICO Robot have been renamed to Joint Control Robot - 4 DOF and Joint Control Robot - 6 DOF, respectively. The change of the name reflects the fact that QUARC must work with customized version of the Kinova 4-DOF/6-DOF MICO robots in order to enable open-architecture control of the robot.

Deprecated Features

Deprecated

Some of the previous QUARC features have been deprecated in QUARC 2018, as mentioned below. Many of the deprecated features may continue to work, but are no longer supported and should be avoided.

MATLAB Versions No Longer Supported

MATLAB R2015b

MATLAB R2015b is no longer supported.

MATLAB R2016a

MATLAB R2016a is no longer supported.

MATLAB R2016b

MATLAB R2016b is no longer supported.

Development Host

32-bit Windows Host

The 32-bit Windows Host is no longer supported since MATLAB R2017a (the minimum MATLAB version that QUARC 2018 supports) and beyond do not support 32-bit Windows.

QUARC Blocks

CRS Robot blocks

The CRS A465 blocks have been deprecated.

The CAT5 Joint Torques to Motor Inputs block has been deprecated.

Bug Fixes

Some of the bug fixes in QUARC 2018 are enumerated below. This list is not complete. Only some of the highlights are listed below.

Channel Selection dialogs

It is now easier to select channels from an image in the channel selection dialogs. Previously, clicking on the boundary of a selection area was not selecting the channel. Now it does.

Host Blocks

Numerous bugs in the Host blocks were fixed which affected their reliability.

NI PCIe-6353

Fixed bug in driver support for the NI PCIe-6353 card and added full support for all encoder channels.

Stream blocks

Fixed bug in Stream Send and Stream Write blocks in which the dimensions for variable-size signals were not sent correctly for dimensions exceeding 255 bytes.

 

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