Inital Setup for Tutorial¶

Prerequisites¶

Common:
- Git
- A Linux environment (Ubuntu recommended)

There are 2 way to do it:

1. Without Using docker¶

gazebo-sim-plugins-tutorial/
├── standalone_gz_sim_plugins/
│   ├── plugin_name_1/              # Standalone Gazebo Sim system plugin
│   ├── plugin_name_2/              # Standalone Gazebo Sim system plugin
│   └── ...                         # More standalone plugins
│
├── ros2_ws/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── yt_tutorial_gazebo_ros/      # ROS 2 Gazebo launch & integration
│   │   └── tutorial_gazebo_plugins/     # ROS 2 Gazebo plugins
│   └── ...                               # ROS 2 build, install, log folders
│
└── README.md

Needed¶

ROS 2 installed on host
Gazebo Sim installed on host
Build tools (CMake / make)
colcon (for ROS 2 workspace)

NOTE:
- Make sure you already have ROS 2 + Gazebo Sim installed on your system.
- The main difference vs Docker is simply where your X path points.

Clone:

git clone https://github.com/Hrithik-verma/gazebo-sim-plugins-tutorial.git
cd gazebo-sim-plugins-tutorial

Build & Run¶

A) Standalone Gazebo Sim Plugins¶

1) Go to a standalone plugin folder:

cd <path-to>/gazebo-sim-plugins-tutorial/standalone_gz_sim_plugins/<plugin_name>

2) Build:

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make
cd ..

3) Export plugin path (so Gazebo Sim can find it):

export GZ_SIM_SYSTEM_PLUGIN_PATH=$(pwd)/build

4) Launch Gazebo Sim with an SDF:

gazebo sim -v 4 <sdf_file_path>.sdf

Notes: - "-v 4" prints debug logs (useful while developing) - If Gazebo can’t find the plugin, re-check GZ_SIM_SYSTEM_PLUGIN_PATH and that build succeeded.

B) ROS 2 Workspace (ros2_ws)¶

1) Go to the ROS 2 workspace:

cd <path-to>/gazebo-sim-plugins-tutorial/ros2_ws

2) Build ROS 2 packages:

colcon build --symlink-install

3) Source the workspace:

source install/setup.bash

4) Launch:

ros2 launch yt_tutorial_gazebo_ros <launch_file>.launch.py

2. Using Docker¶

ros2-jazzy-gazebo-harmonic-docker github

ros2-jazzy-gazebo-harmonic-docker/
├──gazebo-sim-plugins-tutorial/   # other repo containing gazebo sim & ros2 launch
|    ├─── standalone_gz_sim_plugins/
│    |     ├── plugin_name_1/              # Standalone Gazebo Sim system plugin
│    |     ├── plugin_name_2/              # Standalone Gazebo Sim system plugin
│    |     └── ...                         # More standalone plugins
│    |
|    ├── ros2_ws/
│           ├── src/
│           │   ├── yt_tutorial_gazebo_ros/      # ROS 2 Gazebo launch & integration
│           │   └── tutorial_gazebo_plugins/     # ROS 2 Gazebo plugins
│           └── ...                               # ROS 2 build, install, log folders
│
├── README.md                    
│
├── Dockerfile   # docker file to make the docker image
├── docker-compose.yaml # docker container setup details 
│
└── README.md

Clone¶

git clone https://github.com/Hrithik-verma/ros2-jazzy-gazebo-harmonic-docker.git
git submodule update --init --recursive

Docker Setup¶

Build the docker container

cd ros2-jazzy-gazebo-harmonic-docker
docker compose up -d

output:
docker build

[+] up 2/2ding layer 5f70bf18a086 32B / 32B     0.1s
 ✔ Image jazzy-gz-harmonic-full    Built        323.2s 
 ✔ Container gz-tutorial-container Created     

 ```                                                 

check image
```bash
docker images

output:
it shows image we build using yt_tuturial_ws/Dockerfile

jazzy-gz-harmonic-full:latest             67661f9f23be       3.81GB             0B    U

check image

docker ps

output:
output current running container

docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                           COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS          PORTS     NAMES
61314940b998   jazzy-gz-harmonic-full          "/ros_entrypoint.sh …"   10 minutes ago   Up 10 minutes             gz-tutorial-container

Run Container¶

Important: container need to have display access for gazebo gui, rviz gui

xhost +

go inside the container

docker exec -it gz-tutorial-container bash

Check Container¶

To check if container is running or not. Container name not in the list that means it not running

docker ps

start

docker start gz-tutorial-container

stop

docker stop gz-tutorial-container

Docker Volume Shared¶

In ros2-jazzy-gazebo-harmonic-docker/docker-compose.yaml

 volumes:
      - /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix:rw
      - ./gazebo-sim-plugins-tutorial/ros2_ws:/root/ros2_ws
      - ./gazebo-sim-plugins-tutorial/standalone_gz_sim_plugins:/root/standalone_gz_sim_plugins

X11: for display access
ros2_ws: entire ros2_ws is mounted inside root/ros2_ws. So any changes we make in ros2_ws will be reflected inside the container. standalone_gz_sim_plugins similary standalone_gz_sim_plugins is mounted inside root/standalone_gz_sim_plugins

Troubleshooting¶

GUI / Gazebo window not opening (Docker): - Ensure you ran: xhost + - Ensure DISPLAY is correctly passed into container (depends on your docker setup) - Display id is same in host & container host & docker container should have same id

echo $DISPLAY

output eg:

$ echo $DISPLAY
:0

if not export same display id in host & docker container

export DISPLAY=:0