Installation of NXP Gazebo [OLD]

[WORK IN PROGRESS] NOTE: Add more info about scripts being run - Landon

These are draft instructions and may change or be updated. Please check back here regularly.

If you run into issues with this guide, please use the Contact section in the sidebar on the left to get help.

Setting up your Ubuntu desktop environment

You can install by using nxp_desktop.sh shell by downloading the file at

GitHub - rudislabs/desktop_installs: Collection of scripts for various desktop installs.GitHub

You can do so easily by running the following git clone command using the link from the git repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/rudislabs/desktop_installs

Now you should see the desktop_installs folder in your home folder:

Expected output for `git clone`

After downloading the file you may need to make it executable. You can do so by entering the desktop_installs directory and running a chmod command:

$ cd desktop_installs
$ chmod a+x nxp_desktop.sh
$ ls

Now you should see that the nxp_desktop.sh file is highlighted green. This means that it has executable permissions.

Expected output for `chmod`

Now, we want to run this file to set up our desktop environment. It will ask you for your Ubuntu user password; just type that in when it asks for it. To run the file, run the following command and you should get the expected output:

$ ./nxp_desktop.sh

Expected output for `./nxp_desktop.sh`

You should now see that your background has changed and the command has given you the All done! signal. Great! Now let's run the workspace setup to get Gazebo, PX4, and ROS installed.

Setting up NXP Cup Simulation software

Running the ROS2 Foxy install script

First, we will need to navigate to the new workspace folder created by the nxp_desktop.sh install script. The workspace folder is at ~/git/. Inside of that workspace folder, there is a script that will set up ROS2 and all necessary dependecies for you. That install script is located at ~/git/nxp_gazebo/scripts/. To get there, run the following commands:

$ cd ~/git/nxp_gazebo/scripts
$ ls

Expected output of `cd ~/git/nxp_gazebo/scripts/`

Now, we will need to run the foxy_install.sh file to set up our software. To start, run the following command and make sure you get the expected output:

Note: This command will take a long time to finish since it is installing ROS2.

$ ./foxy_install.sh

Expected output from `./foxy_install.sh`

Once you get the expected output from ./foxy_install.sh, you'll want to add a line to your ~/.bashrc. Follow the instructions below:

$ nano ~/.bashrc

[go to end of file]

Add: source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.bash

[Press ctrl+x, type Y, press enter]

Then, run the following commands and make sure you get the expected output:

$ cat ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc

Expected output for `cat ~/.bashrc` and `source ~/.bashrc`

Installing RTPS

In order to transfer simulated Pixy camera data from ROS2 to simulated PX4, we need to install some software. We are following the guide at the link below, but we will go over the commands in detail here.

Fast DDS Installation | PX4 User Guide

Installing Fast-RTPS (DDS)

Clone the project from Github:

$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/eProsima/Fast-DDS.git -b v2.0.0 ~/FastDDS-2.0.0
$ cd ~/FastDDS-2.0.0
$ mkdir build && cd build

You should get the expected output from these commands shown below:

Next, we will run some commands to build and install Fast-DDS. Run the following commands:

$ cmake -DTHIRDPARTY=ON -DSECURITY=ON ..
$ make -j$(nproc --all)
$ sudo make install

You should get a message stating [100%] Built target fastrtps once make -j$(nproc --all) is finished, and you should get the expected output shown below after you run sudo make install:

Installing Fast-RTPS-Gen

Next, we will install Fast-RTPS-Gen. To do so, run the following command and make sure you get the expected output:

$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/eProsima/Fast-DDS-Gen.git -b v1.0.4 ~/Fast-RTPS-Gen \
    && cd ~/Fast-RTPS-Gen \
    && ./gradlew assemble \
    && sudo ./gradlew install

If you got the expected output, great! We will move on to building our ROS2 workspace.

Building the ROS2 workspace

Now, we will want to navigate to the ROS2 workspace and build all of the packages inside it. First, we will change directories to the ~/git/nxp_ros2_ws/ and then run some build commands. Run the commands below and make sure that you get the expected output:

$ colcon build --packages-select px4_msgs --symlink-install
$ colcon build --packages-select px4_ros_com --symlink-install
$ colcon build --packages-select nxp_cup_vision --symlink-install
$ colcon build --packages-select nxp_cup_bringup --symlink-install

Expected output for building px4_msgs

Expected output for building px4_ros_com (stderr is okay!)

Expected output for building nxp_cup_vision and nxp_cup_bringup

Once we have built all of our ROS2 workspace, we will want to source the setup.bash for the workspace. We also want to make sure that all of our library paths are properly sourced. To do so, we will add some lines to the end of our ~/.bashrc. Add the following lines to the end of your ~/.bashrc:

source /home/$USER/git/nxp_ros2_ws/install/setup.bash
export PATH=/usr/lib/ccache:$PATH

export GAZEBO_RESOURCE_PATH=/usr/share/gazebo-11

export GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH=/home/$USER/git/PX4-Autopilot/Tools/sitl_gazebo/models:/home/$USER/git/nxp_gazebo/models

export GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gazebo-11/plugins:/home/$USER/git/PX4-Autopilot/build/px4_sitl_rtps/build_gazebo

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/$USER/git/PX4-Autopilot/build/px4_sitl_rtps/build_gazebo:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

You can do so with nano or vim. You can follow the nano instructions from earlier in the guide if you need help doing so. To make sure your ~/.bashrc looks correct, run the following command and then check if you get the expected output:

$ cat ~/.bashrc

Expected ~/.bashrc after adding lines

Now, you'll want to source that ~/.bashrc by running the following command:

$ source ~/.bashrc

Once you're done building your ROS2 workspace and sourcing the ~/.bashrc, we will move on to building the PX4 binary for our simulation!

Building the PX4 binary

The PX4 source code is located at ~/git/PX4-Autopilot. To build the PX4 source, we will want to change directories and run the build command for px4_sitl_rtps gazebo. This will give the ROS2 workspace a PX4 binary to run for our simulated NXP Cup car. Run the following commands to build PX4 and make sure you get the expected output:

$ cd ~/git/PX4-Autopilot
$ DONT_RUN=1 make px4_sitl_rtps gazebo

Expected output for building PX4 binary

If you get the expected output, stay vigilant! We only have one more command to run. We need to install xterm for the PX4 shell that runs when we boot up the simulation. To do so, run the following command:

$ sudo apt install xterm

Once you have done that, you're finished setting up the NXP Cup simulation! Congratulations! We know that it is quite a sophisticated process at the moment, but we will work on improving the process in the future. Stay tuned for updates to this page. In the meantime, if you have any issues, make sure to contact us using the contact page on this Gitbook:

Contact

Next, we will move on to running the Gazebo simulation for the first time to confirm that everything works correctly.

Running the Gazebo Simulation

To run the Gazebo simulation, we suggest you first restart your VM or PC and/or log out and log back in. Once you've done so, you can run the following command to start the simulation stack and check to see if you get the expected result:

$ ros2 launch nxp_cup_bringup nxp_cup_race.launch.py

NXP Cup Simulation

Hooray! You have successfully setup your NXP Cup Gazebo Simulation. For more documentation on how to use the Gazebo simulation, move on to the next section using the buttons below or navigate by using the sidebar on the left.