How to add a delay in Webots
The best way to add a delay
Adding a delay
When adding a delay in webots you need to be aware of some things. Basically you can calculate time using a function.
Cpp
Eg :- float currentTime = float(robot->getTime());
(In the example the Current time is assigned to a variable named currentTime. )
The way of finding current time for the other languges such as C, python, matlab, java can be found in the official documentation given below.
To add a delay you need to know another thing. That is the way of using a do-while loop. When using a do-while loop you need to call robot->step().
Cpp
Eg:- do {
//relevant command
robot->step();
} while(condition);
(If you don’t use step(), the webots simulation won’t progress and the time will remain the same)
Now let’s see the delay code
float current_time_1 = float(robot->getTime());
float current_time_2= float(robot->getTime());
do {
current_time_2 = float(robot->getTime());
robot->step(1);
} while(current_time_2 < (current_time_1 + 2));
(From this a delay of 2 seconds is created. If you need to change the delay just change 2 to another value.)
The full cpp code for a 2 second delay is given below.
#include <webots/Robot.hpp>
#define TIME_STEP 32
using namespace webots;
void delay_function();
Robot *robot = new Robot();
int main() {
while (robot->step(TIME_STEP) != -1) {
//One command
delay_function();
//Another command
};
delete robot;
return 0;
}
void delay_function() {
float current_time_1 = float(robot->getTime());
float current_time_2= float(robot->getTime());
do {
current_time_2 = float(robot->getTime());
robot->step(1);
} while(current_time_2 < (current_time_1 + 2));
}
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