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Lab Setup Guide: Preparing Your Development Environment

This guide provides a comprehensive, step-by-step walkthrough for setting up the software environment required for this course. Following these instructions carefully is crucial for a smooth learning experience.

1. Install Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish)​

The entire robotics ecosystem, especially ROS, is developed and tested primarily on Linux. We strongly recommend a native Ubuntu 22.04 installation.

  • Recommendation: Install Ubuntu in a dual-boot configuration alongside your existing Windows or macOS, or as the sole operating system on your machine.
  • Avoid: Using a Virtual Machine (VM) is not recommended as you will likely encounter significant performance issues and problems with USB device passthrough and GPU acceleration.

Follow the official Ubuntu tutorial to create a bootable USB and install Ubuntu:

2. Install ROS 2 Humble Hawksbill​

ROS 2 Humble is the designated ROS 2 version for Ubuntu 22.04. These steps follow the official ROS 2 documentation.

Step 2.1: Set Locale​

Ensure your system locale supports UTF-8.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install locales
sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
sudo update-locale LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Step 2.2: Add ROS 2 APT Repository​

Add the ROS 2 repository to your system's package sources.

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl -y
sudo curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo $UBUNTU_CODENAME) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null

Step 2.3: Install ROS 2 Packages​

This command installs the full desktop version of ROS 2, including demos, tutorials, and Gazebo.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ros-humble-desktop-full

Step 2.4: Source the Setup File​

To use the ROS 2 commands, you need to source the setup file in your terminal. It's best to add this to your .bashrc file so it's done automatically in every new terminal.

echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Step 2.5: Test your Installation​

Run a simple talker/listener example. Open two terminals. In the first terminal, run the talker:

ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

In the second terminal, run the listener:

ros2 run demo_nodes_py listener

You should see the listener printing messages from the talker.

3. Install Gazebo and ros_gz Bridge​

Gazebo should have been installed as part of the ros-humble-desktop-full package. Now, install the necessary packages to bridge ROS 2 and Gazebo.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ros-humble-ros-gz

Test your Gazebo Installation​

Launch a simple Gazebo world:

gazebo /opt/ros/humble/share/gazebo/worlds/pioneer2dx.world

4. Install NVIDIA Isaac Sim​

If you have an NVIDIA RTX GPU (as per the Recommended Requirements), you can install Isaac Sim.

Step 4.1: Install NVIDIA Drivers​

Ensure you have the latest proprietary NVIDIA drivers installed. You can do this through Ubuntu's "Software & Updates" application (Additional Drivers tab).

Step 4.2: Install Omniverse Launcher​

  1. Go to the NVIDIA Omniverse website.
  2. Download and install the Omniverse Launcher for Linux.

Step 4.3: Install Isaac Sim​

  1. Open the Omniverse Launcher.
  2. In the "Exchange" tab, search for "Isaac Sim."
  3. Click on Isaac Sim and select "Install." Choose the latest available version.

5. Set Up Your ROS 2 Workspace​

A ROS 2 workspace is a directory where you will create and manage your own ROS 2 packages.

Step 5.1: Create the Workspace​

mkdir -p ~/ros2_ws/src
cd ~/ros2_ws

Step 5.2: Clone Course Examples (Optional)​

If a repository with course examples is provided, you would clone it into your src directory.

# Example:
# git clone <repository_url> ~/ros2_ws/src/course_examples

Step 5.3: Build the Workspace​

colcon is the ROS 2 build tool. Run it from the root of your workspace.

cd ~/ros2_ws
colcon build

Step 5.4: Source the Workspace​

After building, you need to source the local setup file to make your new packages available.

echo "source ~/ros2_ws/install/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Your development environment is now ready!