ArmarX provides the concept of a virtual time which allows components and statecharts to synchronize to time sources other than wall-time/system time. Time sources are defined via the TimeServerInterface wich is implemented by the ArmarXTimeServer application and the simulator from the ArmarXSimulation package. Time itself is represented as IceUtil::Time instances. The "Clock" gui plugin can be used to start, stop, speed up, or slow down the time offered by a TimeServer.

For example, the "Plotter" gui plugin uses virtual time to show all measurements in Simulator time and to pause when the simulation is stopped.

In order to use a TimeServer, one simply has to set the property

ArmarX.UseTimeServer = true

in the $HOME/.armarx.default.cfg or the global.cfg of a scenario. Setting UseTimeServer=false will provide each caller of the ArmarX VirtualTime commands with the system time.

To make your components and statecharts VirtualTime compatible, you have to use the following functions

replace IceUtile::Time::now() with armarx::TimeUtil::GetTime() to get the current time.
replace sleep() and usleep() with armarx::TimeUtil::Sleep() and armarx::TimeUtil::MSSleep()

armarx::PeriodicTask uses system time by default, but can be changed to use TimeServer time by setting the forceSystemTime constructor parameter to false.

Timeouts in statecharts registered with StateUtility::setTimeoutEvent(...) will automatically use TimeServer time when UseTimeServer=true.