Thor-ROS & Asgard Installation Guide (Ubuntu 22.04)

Ready to run Thor and Asgard on Ubuntu? Just follow these steps, grab your terminal and let the penguin do the heavy lifting!

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1. Set up Ubuntu 22.04

Start with a fresh install of Ubuntu 22.04.
If you’re already running it, you’re good to go!

2. Install ROS2 Humble

We recommend following the official ROS2 documentation:
👉 ROS2 Humble Installation Guide

Here’s a quick summary of the steps:

Set locale

sudo apt update && sudo apt install locales
sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
sudo update-locale LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Setup sources

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository universe

sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl -y
export ROS_APT_SOURCE_VERSION=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/ros-infrastructure/ros-apt-source/releases/latest | grep -F "tag_name" | awk -F\" '{print \$4}')
curl -L -o /tmp/ros2-apt-source.deb "https://github.com/ros-infrastructure/ros-apt-source/releases/download/${ROS_APT_SOURCE_VERSION}/ros2-apt-source_${ROS_APT_SOURCE_VERSION}.$(. /etc/os-release && echo ${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-${VERSION_CODENAME}})_all.deb"
sudo dpkg -i /tmp/ros2-apt-source.deb

Install ROS2 packages

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install ros-humble-desktop
sudo apt install ros-dev-tools

Source the ROS2 setup script

echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

3. Install Thor-ROS dependencies

Let’s get all the extra goodies for Thor-ROS and Asgard:

ros2-control

sudo apt install ros-humble-ros2-control ros-humble-ros2-controllers

Gazebo

sudo apt install ros-humble-gazebo-ros-pkgs ros-humble-gazebo-ros2-control

MoveIt2

sudo apt install ros-humble-moveit-ros-control-interface ros-humble-moveit ros-humble-moveit-resources

rosbridge

sudo apt install ros-humble-rosbridge-suite

Serial and JSON libraries

sudo apt install libserial-dev nlohmann-json3-dev

4. Clone the Thor-ROS repository

Let’s get the code!

cd ~/
git clone https://github.com/AngelLM/Thor-ROS

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5. Build the ROS2 packages

Time to compile:

cd ~/Thor-ROS/ws_thor
colcon build

6. Install npm and Asgard dependencies

Let’s get Asgard ready to shine:

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs
cd ~/Thor-ROS/asgard
npm install

7. Launch the Thor ROS2 system (Terminal #1)

Start the simulated robot or connect to your real one!

cd ~/Thor-ROS/ws_thor
source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch thor_bringup simulated_robot.launch.py

8. Launch Asgard (Terminal #2)

Open a second terminal and start the web interface:

cd ~/Thor-ROS/asgard/
npm run dev

9. Open Asgard in your browser

Copy the URL shown in Terminal #2 after running npm run dev (usually something like http://localhost:5173) and enjoy controlling Thor from your browser!

You’re all set!
If you run into trouble or want to join the community, don’t forget to visit our Discord.