Create Applications for MOSAIC with Java

Applications in Eclipse MOSAIC are simulated by the Application Simulator. Such an application is programmed in Java and follows an event-based execution flow. Thereby, certain methods of the application are called by the Application Simulator upon corresponding events (the application “reacts”). To actively gain execution at some later point in time, an application can also schedule a generic event itself. When the application is executing, it has access to a set of methods, allowing to trigger actions like sensing messages or controlling the vehicle, influencing the current simulation (the application “acts”).

Developing Applications

Developing custom applications in Eclipse MOSAIC is rather easy. The best way to learn it is by looking at the source code of actual applications. For this purpose, we provide the source code of all tutorial applications and further examples.

For an easy understanding of the application API, the following general concepts and design philosophies are a good starting point:

  • Requirements to deploy own applications: In Eclipse MOSAIC it is very easy to build your own application. First, it needs to inherit from the AbstractApplication class (see following section). Secondly, the application must be mapped to a vehicle (or RSU, or traffic light, …) via the mapping configuration (see section mapping). Finally, the application must be compiled as a Jar-File and placed into the application directory of your scenario.

  • Accessing functions, e.g. to control vehicles or sending messages: Every application has access to the OperatingSystem of the underlying unit which allows to change its state or to initiate actions, such as sending messages to other vehicles.

  • Reacting on events, such as received messages: For each application you decide, which events the application should listen to. For example, if your application needs to react upon incoming V2X messages, it simply implements the CommunicationApplication interface. In the following section you can find all available interfaces applications can implement.

Create a ’Hello world’ Application Based on Maven

For this example you need to install Maven which is used to resolve required MOSAIC dependencies and to compile your application Java code into a Jar file. Follow the steps to build an example application:

  1. Create a new folder HelloWorldApp: 
    └─ HelloWorldApp
   ├─ src
   |  └─ main
   |     └─ java
   |        └─ HelloWorldApp.java
   └─ pom.xml
  2. Place a pom.xml with the following content: 
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   
    <groupId>org.eclipse.mosaic.app</groupId>
    <artifactId>HelloWorldApp</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1</version>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>
  
    <properties>
         <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
         <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
    </properties>
     
    <repositories> 
        <repository>
            <id>repo.eclipse.org</id>
            <name>MOSAIC Repository</name>
            <url>https://repo.eclipse.org/content/repositories/mosaic</url>
        </repository>
    </repositories>
                 
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.eclipse.mosaic</groupId>
            <artifactId>mosaic-application</artifactId>
            <version>24.0</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
       
</project>
  3. Create a new application in src/main/java/HelloWorldApp.java: 
    import org.eclipse.mosaic.fed.application.app.AbstractApplication;
import org.eclipse.mosaic.fed.application.app.api.VehicleApplication;
import org.eclipse.mosaic.fed.application.app.api.os.VehicleOperatingSystem;
import org.eclipse.mosaic.lib.objects.vehicle.VehicleData;
import org.eclipse.mosaic.lib.util.scheduling.Event;
  
public class HelloWorldApp extends AbstractApplication<VehicleOperatingSystem> implements VehicleApplication {
       
    @Override
    public void onStartup() {
        getLog().info("Hello World!");
    }
  
    @Override
    public void onVehicleUpdated(VehicleData previousVehicleData, VehicleData updatedVehicleData) {
        getLog().info("Driving {} m/s.", updatedVehicleData.getSpeed());
    }
   
    @Override
    public void onShutdown() {
        getLog().info("Good bye!");
    }
   
    @Override
    public void processEvent(Event event) {
        // ...
    }
}
  4. Build the application using maven: 
    mvn clean install
  5. Copy the JAR file from target/HelloWorldApp-0.0.1.jar to the application directory of your simulation scenario.
  6. Use the fully qualified name HelloWorldApp in the mapping_config.json to load the application onto vehicles.

Debugging of Applications

To debug an application, remote debugging needs to be used. The following steps need to be performed in order to debug the application:

  1. Open the application in your IDE.
  2. Modify your mosaic.sh or mosaic.bat by adding debug parameters to the java call:
    java -agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=y,address=4100 ...
  3. Add a new debug profile in your IDE for remote debugging. Make sure to correctly configure port 4100 (or whichever port you provided in step 2).
  4. Launch Eclipse MOSAIC with the argument -w 0 to disable the watchdog timer otherwise it will interfere with debugging.
  5. Connect your debugger in your IDE with the running simulation.
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