project-structure

Structure of a CoppeliaSim project

A CoppeliaSim project you can hand in, re-run and grade has a specific shape. This skill describes it. None of it is style: every piece solves a problem that shows up every time.

Before any code: what goes where

Anything that must be reproducible is written in Python against coppeliasim_zmqremoteapi_client. That covers building the scene, assembling the robot, and every control loop.

MCP tools are for looking and checking, not for building: list objects, read a position, fire a sensor, see whether the simulation is running. A control loop cannot fit through them, and forty walls is forty calls that leave no file behind.

Rule of thumb: if the result must survive closing CoppeliaSim, it goes in a script. If it is a question ("where did that wall end up?"), it goes in a tool.

One script per artifact

Do not put the scene, the robot and the controller in one file. They change at different rates: the scene is built once, the robot is tweaked twenty times, and the controller runs constantly.

scene.py       the world: floor, walls, obstacles
robot.py       the robot inside it: chassis, joints, sensors
control.py     what the robot does: teleop, navigation, the task

Each runs on its own and leaves the scene in a known state.

The order of the functions

Scripts always follow the same sequence. Keeping it means anyone — including you a month from now — knows where to look.

def connect():
    return RemoteAPIClient(host=COPPELIA_HOST, port=COPPELIA_PORT).require("sim")

def clean(sim):
    """Delete whatever the previous run left behind."""

def create_piece(sim, ...):
    """One function per kind of piece. Returns the handle."""

def build(sim):
    """Calls the create_* functions in order and returns what was built."""

def verify(...):
    """MEASURES the result. Does not assume it worked."""

def main():
    sim = connect()
    thing = build(sim)
    ok = verify(thing)
    if "--no-save" not in sys.argv:
        sim.saveScene(SCENE_PATH)
    print("\nVerdict:", "ready" if ok else "needs work")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()