visnet-docker

August 11, 2023 · View on GitHub

Docker files needed to build images for visnet/px4_sitl simulation in ROS2 and Gazebo

The ./work directory setup

run ./get_src.sh to clone each repo and add AbuDhabi model to px4 gz world (probably will set up submodules soon)

work/
┣ px4/
┣ ros2_ws/
┃ ┗ src/
┃   ┣ px4_msgs/
┃   ┣ ros_gz/
┃   ┗ visnet/
┗ .gitignore

Build and run

To build the image

docker compose build

To run multiple drones

./run_dev.sh

To access the shell of each service, in two different terminals run

Terminal 1: docker exec -u user -it visnet-visnet_1-1 terminator
Terminal 2: docker exec -u user -it visnet-visnet_2-1 terminator

To start px4_sitl and ros2 offboard control, split each terminator into 3 panels and run

  1. cd px4 && make px4_sitl to build px4_sitl first. (This only need to be built once in one of the container shells)
    PX4_SYS_AUTOSTART=4001 ./build/px4_sitl_default/bin/px4 -i 1 to start px4_sitl instance 1 with x500 in gz-garden.
    In the other container shell start with -i 2

  2. MicroXRCEAgent udp4 -p 8888 to start DDS agent for communication with ROS2\

  3. cd ros2_ws && colcon build to build ros2 packages neccessary for px4-ros-gz communications
    then python3 ros2_ws/src/visnet/scripts/offboard_control.py to start the offboard control example.

Environment Variables

  • PX4_GZ_MODEL Name of the px4 vehicle model to spawn in gz
  • PX4_GZ_MODEL_POSE Spawn pose of the vehicle model, must used with PX4_GZ_MODEL
  • PX4_MICRODDS_NS Namespace assigned to the sitl vehicle, normally associated with px4 instances, but can be set mannually
  • ROS_DOMAIN_ID Separate each container into its own domain (Is it still necessary since each SITL instance has a unique namespace?)