• Installation
  • Installation on SBC
    • Setup docker
      • Install Jetpack
      • Install docker
      • Add docker to user group
    • Setup Isaac ROS
    • Jetson Clocks (Optional)
    • Add Authorized SSH Keys (Optional)
  • Installation on local computer
• Setup Workspaces
• Build Isaac ROS Docker Image
• Start Docker Container
  • Development
  • Production
• Notes
  • TODO
  • Issues
    • 1. MoveIt
    • 2. Husarnet
    • 3. Sourcing of ROS Workspaces on Entry
    • 4. Jetson Clocks
    • 5. ZED

Installation

For ease of installation, save this directory as ~/workspaces/ros2-docker.

Installation on SBC

Setup docker

Source: https://nvidia-isaac-ros.github.io/getting_started/hardware_setup/compute/index.html

Commands from the above website are pasted below:

Install Jetpack

sudo apt install nvidia-jetpack

Install docker

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Add docker to user group

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

Reboot the computer for the changes to take effect.

Setup Isaac ROS

Source: https://nvidia-isaac-ros.github.io/getting_started/dev_env_setup.html

Commands from the above website are pasted below:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl restart docker

sudo apt-get install git-lfs
git lfs install --skip-repo

mkdir -p ~/workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/src
echo "export ISAAC_ROS_WS=${HOME}/workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Jetson Clocks (Optional)

Running sudo jetson_clocks maximises Jetson performance. We can make jetson_clocks run on start up.

Create the file /etc/systemd/system/jetsonClocks.service and add the following lines:

[Unit]
Description=Maximize Jetson Performance
After=nvpmodel.service
Requires=nvpmodel.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/jetson_clocks

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then run the following commands

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/jetsonClocks.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable jetsonClocks.service

Reboot the computer to let the changes take effect.

Add Authorized SSH Keys (Optional)

To avoid keying in the password each time login in via SSH, add the client computer's public key (e.g. id_rsa.pub) into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. Note that ~/.ssh/authorized_keys should be a file not a folder.

Installation on local computer

This is for decoding images compressed on the Jetson.

Follow https://nvidia-isaac-ros.github.io/getting_started/hardware_setup/compute/index.html and https://nvidia-isaac-ros.github.io/getting_started/dev_env_setup.html to set up Isaac ROS docker dev environment.

Setup Workspaces

1. Make the drone ROS workspace:

mkdir -p ~/workspaces/drone/src

2. Clone https://github.com/BumblebeeAS/software-uav-2 into ~/workspaces/drone/src

3. Follow the setup guide at https://github.com/BumblebeeAS/software-uav-2

Build Isaac ROS Docker Image

For SBC, use isaac_ros_jp6.0. For local computer, use isaac_ros_x64.

1. Clone isaac_ros_common.

cd ${ISAAC_ROS_WS}/src && \
   git clone https://github.com/NVIDIA-ISAAC-ROS/isaac_ros_common.git

2. Edit the Isaac ROS Common config file by setting CONFIG_DOCKER_SEARCH_DIRS as

For isaac_ros_jp6.0:

(<Path to this directory>/isaac_ros_jp6.0)

For isaac_ros_x64:

(<Path to this directory>/isaac_ros_x64)

By default, <Path to this directory> is $HOME/workspaces/ros2-docker.

Take note to enclose it with () and ensure that there are no spaces.

3. Create copies and symbolic links for the required config files and scripts.

By default, the path to this directory is $HOME/workspaces/ros2-docker. Replace it below with the path to this directory if yours is different.

For isaac_ros_jp6.0:

export SOURCE_DIRECTORY=$HOME/workspaces/ros2-docker/isaac_ros_jp6.0
ln -sf $SOURCE_DIRECTORY/.isaac_ros_common-config   ~/.isaac_ros_common-config 
ln -sf $SOURCE_DIRECTORY/run_dev.sh                 ${ISAAC_ROS_WS}/src/isaac_ros_common/scripts/run_dev.sh
ln -sf $SOURCE_DIRECTORY/run_main.sh                ${ISAAC_ROS_WS}/src/isaac_ros_common/scripts/run_main.sh
unset SOURCE_DIRECTORY

For isaac_ros_x64:

export SOURCE_DIRECTORY=$HOME/workspaces/ros2-docker/isaac_ros_x64
ln -sf $SOURCE_DIRECTORY/.isaac_ros_common-config   ~/.isaac_ros_common-config 
ln -sf $SOURCE_DIRECTORY/run_dev.sh                 ${ISAAC_ROS_WS}/src/isaac_ros_common/scripts/run_dev.sh
ln -sf $SOURCE_DIRECTORY/run_main.sh                ${ISAAC_ROS_WS}/src/isaac_ros_common/scripts/run_main.sh
unset SOURCE_DIRECTORY

4. Build the docker images.

cd ${ISAAC_ROS_WS}/src/isaac_ros_common
./scripts/run_dev.sh

Start Docker Container

run_dev.sh is for development, while run_main.sh is for production. The difference is that run_dev.sh attempts a Docker image build each time, while run_main.sh looks up an existing Docker image.

Development

cd ${ISAAC_ROS_WS}/src/isaac_ros_common
./scripts/run_dev.sh

Production

run_main.sh is meant to run a built image, which can be built by run_dev.sh.

By default, file changes (except in the mounted workspaces) and installations in a running Docker container are not persistent. To save the current state of the container's filesystem to an image, do docker container commit (https://docs.docker.com/reference/cli/docker/container/commit/).

run_main.sh requires the environment variable BUILT_DOCKER_CONTAINER_NAME. It reads environment variables from ENV_FILE, which by default is $HOME/workspaces/ros2-docker/environments/.env. If the path of your file is different, change ENV_FILE in run_main.sh.

Notes

TODO

• (Good to have) combine Isaac ROS and Husarnet default Fast RTPS scripts to poll topics outside of container while publishing over the internet
• (Good to have) Consider https://github.com/husarnet/ros-docker/tree/main

Issues

1. MoveIt

UPDATE: As of 2 Aug 2024, this issue seems to be fixed.

NOTE: As of 18 Jul 2024, there is a bug with moveit_task_constructor. Comment out the following lines in ~/workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/src/isaac_ros_common/docker/Dockerfile.ros2_humble:

# Install MoveIt task constructor from source.  The "demo" package depends on moveit_resources_panda_moveit_config,
# installed from source above.

RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/var/cache/apt \
    mkdir -p ${ROS_ROOT}/src && cd ${ROS_ROOT}/src \
    && git clone https://github.com/ros-planning/moveit_task_constructor.git -b humble \
    && cd moveit_task_constructor && source ${ROS_ROOT}/setup.bash \
    && cd msgs && bloom-generate rosdebian && fakeroot debian/rules binary \
    && cd ../ && apt-get install -y ./*.deb && rm ./*.deb \
    && cd rviz_marker_tools && bloom-generate rosdebian && fakeroot debian/rules binary \
    && cd ../ && apt-get install -y ./*.deb && rm ./*.deb \
    && cd core && bloom-generate rosdebian && fakeroot debian/rules binary DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=nocheck \
    && cd ../ && apt-get install -y ./*.deb && rm ./*.deb \
    && cd capabilities && bloom-generate rosdebian && fakeroot debian/rules binary DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=nocheck \
    && cd ../ && apt-get install -y ./*.deb && rm ./*.deb \
    && cd visualization && bloom-generate rosdebian && fakeroot debian/rules binary DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=nocheck \
    && cd ../ && apt-get install -y ./*.deb && rm ./*.deb \
    && cd demo && bloom-generate rosdebian && fakeroot debian/rules binary DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=nocheck \
    && cd ../ && apt-get install -y ./*.deb && rm ./*.deb

and

# Install moveit2_tutorials from source (depends on moveit_hybrid_planning).
RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/var/cache/apt \
    mkdir -p ${ROS_ROOT}/src && cd ${ROS_ROOT}/src \
    && git clone https://github.com/ros-planning/moveit2_tutorials.git -b humble \
    && cd moveit2_tutorials && source ${ROS_ROOT}/setup.bash \
    && bloom-generate rosdebian && fakeroot debian/rules binary \
    && cd ../ && apt-get install -y ./*.deb && rm ./*.deb

2. Husarnet

• For now, install and join the network outside Docker. Unable to join while building the Docker containers.
• For now, run husarnet-dds singleshot inside the running container. No effect when starting in Dockerfiles.

3. Sourcing of ROS Workspaces on Entry

• Only the first terminal instance running the Docker container source the ROS workspaces automatically. Subsequent instances do not.

4. Jetson Clocks

UPDATE: After manually compiling the L4T 36.3 kernel and reflashing to enable USB modem connection (another unrelated issue), this issue seems to have been fixed.

• Even after setting Jetson Clocks to run on startup above, it may randomly fail to start up due to a bug with nvpmodel (https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/segfault-in-usr-sbin-nvpmodel/295010/16). Simply do:

sudo systemctl restart nvpmodel.service
sudo systemctl restart jetsonClocks.service

Where the second line can be replaced with sudo jetson_clocks if the service is not set up.

5. ZED

When starting camera stream for the ZED camera within the Docker container using the following command:

ros2 launch zed_wrapper zed_camera.launch.py camera_model:=zedm

We might see the following errors:

• No camera detected.
• MOTION SENSORS REQUIRED error.

To fix these errors, do the following:

1. (If they are not already done,) install the ZED SDK ("yes" for all options) and build the zed_wrapper ROS package outside the Docker container.
2. Run the above command (using zed_wrapper to start the camera stream) outside the container and interrupt the process.

Thereafter, the camera stream can be started within the container without errors.

This fix seems to not persist between boots. If needed, repeat the process to fix the issue after boot.