As an author, I am supposed to say few words about how wonderful
and interesting ROS2 is, how robotics takes over the world and so on...
Nope.
ROS2 is around for many years yet it is still poorly documented.
When you look at forums, you may notice that to find answers people
sometimes have to go through ROS2 source code!
And I do realize that a single person can not change that.
Or can I?
As I study ROS2, I am going to document my "discoveries" here, trying to make it as readable as possible. The complete code will always be provided, I am going to make sure it works before making it available, and so on.
That said, ROS2 keeps changing, so code that works on a current version (I use Foxy) might not work on the next version. This is beyond my control.
And yes, it is ROS2, and always ROS2. A huge problem with ROS(2) tutorials
is that people write "ROS" instead, Google has no idea how to index it, and
when you do search, you get mixed ROS/ROS2 results. Then you read half of a post
just to discover that it was for a previous version, not for ROS2.
I know it is hard to type an extra character, but I am going to do my best. ROS2.
Here. See?
The reason for choosing ROS2 is purely practical. At some point, ROS will be no longer supported, so to build your career, you have to learn ROS2. Yes, it is buggy, poorly documentsd and keeps changing. But learning it now in a slow way is better, than to have to switch to it in a hurry, five years from now.
Unrelated note: in sections below, I provide directory structures for packages I created. Additionally, all those packages refer to an outside folder src/worlds that contains "worlds" - as the models of the "worlds" are common, there is no need to duplicate them in each package.
├── worlds
│ ├── empty.world
│ ├── maze.sdf
│ └── shapes.sdf
The archive for worlds files is available here.
ROS 2 packages for working with Gazebo are located in a meta package named gazebo_ros_pkgs. The packages support ROS 2 Crystal and later and Gazebo 9 and later; they can be installed from debian packages or from source.
It means that gazebo_ros_pkgs comes as part of Ubuntu repos, and we don't have to
take extra steps to save it.
Additionally, we may need core tools (repos again).
Make sure you install packages below. Also keep in mind that this is
one of the main sources of confusion: when something "just does not work"
in ROS2, often it is because you don't have one of those packages
(and I can not promise that I have provided a complete list!)
Once again. Imagine: something doesn't work. No meaningful error
messages, mixed and confusing info on forums. And chances are,
you simply haven't installed something.
$ sudo apt install software-properties-common
$ sudo add-apt-repository universe
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl
$ 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
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-desktop
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-ros-base
$ sudo apt install ros-dev-tools
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-ros2-control ros-galactic-ros2-controllers ros-galactic-gazebo-ros2-control
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-gazebo-ros-pkgs
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-ros-core ros-galactic-geometry2
$ sudo pip3 install setuptools
$ sudo apt-get install ros-galactic-joint-state-publisher-gui ros-galactic-xacro
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-navigation2
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-nav2-bringup
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-slam-toolbox
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-robot-localization
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-robot-state-publisher
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-rviz2
# sudo apt install ros-galactic-teleop-twist-keyboard
$ sudo rosdep init
$ rosdep update
# src like ~/SnowCron/ros_projects/harsh
$ rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro galactic -y
$ sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions
# Note: changed API after this version
$ pip install opencv-contrib-python==4.6.0.66
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-aruco
# Robotic arm
$ sudo apt install python3-vcstool
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-test-msgs
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-control-toolbox
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-gazebo-ros-pkgs
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-xacro
$ sudo apt install ros-galactic-joint-state-publisher-gui
$ pip install tinyik
# With the visualization feature:
$ pip install tinyik[viz]
# Transformations tree tool
$ sudo apt-get install -y ros-galactic-rqt-tf-tree
rosdep install --from-paths ./ -i -y --rosdistro galactic --ignore-src
sudo apt-get install ros-galactic-ros2-control ros-galactic-ros2-controllers
sudo apt update && sudo apt install blender
sudo apt install ros-galactic-gazebo-ros-pkgs
$ source /opt/ros/galactic/setup.bash
#pip install trimesh
#pip install pymesh
#pip install pydae
#pip install pymeshfix
pip install open3d
#pip install vtk
python -m pip install scipy
or
sudo apt-get install python3-scipy
# pip install filterpy
$ sudo apt-get remove gazebo-*
$ sudo apt remove ~nros-galactic-* && sudo apt autoremove
$ sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt autoremove
# Consider upgrading for packages previously shadowed.
$ sudo apt upgrade