vrx_classic_v1_3_0 host_install_tutorial

This tutorial will walk you through the setup required to make a computer ready to run the VRX simulations. In order to run VRX your computer will need a discrete graphics card and will need to satisfy the minimum System Requirements.

These instructions contain information for preparing your system environment.

Install all prerequisites in your host system

• Because the simulation uses some relatively new (as of winter 2019) features in ROS and Gazebo, it is highly recommended that you upgrade the packages installed on your system:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt full-upgrade

• Setup and install dependencies:

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver 'hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80' --recv-key C1CF6E31E6BADE8868B172B4F42ED6FBAB17C654
$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo/ubuntu-stable `lsb_release -cs` main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gazebo-stable.list'
$ wget http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -
$ sudo apt update
$ DIST=melodic
$ GAZ=gazebo9
$ sudo apt install cmake mercurial git ruby libeigen3-dev ${GAZ} lib${GAZ}-dev pkg-config python ros-${DIST}-gazebo-plugins ros-${DIST}-gazebo-ros ros-${DIST}-hector-gazebo-plugins ros-${DIST}-joy ros-${DIST}-joy-teleop ros-${DIST}-key-teleop ros-${DIST}-robot-localization ros-${DIST}-robot-state-publisher ros-${DIST}-joint-state-publisher ros-${DIST}-rviz ros-${DIST}-ros-base ros-${DIST}-teleop-tools ros-${DIST}-teleop-twist-keyboard ros-${DIST}-velodyne-simulator ros-${DIST}-xacro ros-${DIST}-rqt ros-${DIST}-rqt-common-plugins protobuf-compiler

Option 1: Install our pre-built package

$ sudo apt install ros-melodic-vrx-gazebo

To test:

• Source the ROS setup.bash file*****:

$ source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash

• Launch the VRX simulation with a simple world:

$ roslaunch vrx_gazebo sandisland.launch

Option 2: Build VRX from source

• Now build a workspace for VRX. If you are familiar with ROS catkin workspaces, this is a similar concept. The steps to setup the workspace are:

$ mkdir -p ~/vrx_ws/src
$ cd ~/vrx_ws/src

• Clone the VRX repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/osrf/vrx

Build instructions

• Source the ROS setup.bash file:

$ source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash

• Build all the software:

$ cd ~/vrx_ws
$ catkin_make

To test:

• Source the VRX setup.bash file*:

$ source  ~/vrx_ws/devel/setup.bash

• Launch the VRX simulation with a simple world:

$ roslaunch vrx_gazebo sandisland.launch

*Remember to run this command every time you open a new terminal.