Getting Started

Prerequisites

All development happens on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). If you are running Windows, the easiest way to install it is through WSL2.

You will need Docker to run ROS2 locally. Follow this guide to install it.

You need to have a basic understanding of ROS2. Follow ROS2 tutorials before you continue.

First time setup

### Download the code
git clone https://github.com/RoboTeamTwente/erc-software-rover
cd erc-software-rover
git submodule update --init --recursive

### Launch ROS2 in Docker
docker run --rm -it -v $PWD:/src -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix -e DISPLAY osrf/ros:humble-desktop-full
cd /src

### Install dependencies
apt update
rosdep install -iy --from-path src

### Compile RealSense depth cam driver with custom flags
# This is a good time to grab some tea.
# This will take about 10 minutes on a laptop.
# TODO: why from source; why CUDA flags; why not check for updates
colcon build --packages-select librealsense2 --cmake-args \
  -DBUILD_WITH_CUDA=ON                                    \
  -DCMAKE_CUDA_COMPILER=/usr/local/cuda/bin/nvcc          \
  -DCHECK_FOR_UPDATES=OFF                                 \
  -DFORCE_RSUSB_BACKEND=ON

Common operations

Compile

While working on a package, you'll frequently want to compile it and all its dependencies:

colcon build --packages-up-to=$PACKAGE
source install/local_setup.bash

Don't forget to cd to the root of the repo!

local_setup.bash doesn't need to be sourced most of the time.

Run your code

There are two different things you can run in ROS2: A node, and a launch file. For more details see Understanding nodes and Launching nodes.

ros2 run $PACKAGE $EXECUTABLE
# -- or --
ros2 launch $PACKAGE $LAUNCH_FILE