Isaac ROS Common

Overview

The Isaac ROS Common repository contains a number of scripts and Dockerfiles to help streamline development and testing with the Isaac ROS suite.

The Docker images included in this package provide pre-compiled binaries for ROS2 Humble on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal.

Additionally, on x86_64 platforms, Docker containers allow us to quickly setup a sensitive set of frameworks and dependencies to ensure a smooth experience with Isaac ROS packages. The Dockerfiles for this platform are based on the version 22.03 image from Deep Learning Frameworks Containers. On Jetson platforms, JetPack manages all of these dependencies for you.

For solutions to known issues, please visit the Troubleshooting section.

Docker Development Scripts

run_dev.sh sets up a development environment with ROS2 installed and key versions of NVIDIA frameworks prepared for both x86_64 and Jetson. Running this script will prepare a Docker image with supported configuration for the host machine and deliver you into a bash prompt running inside the container. From here, you are ready to execute ROS2 build/run commands with your host workspace files mounted into the container, available to edit both on the host and in the container as appropriate. If you run this script again while it is running, it will attach a new shell to the same container.

By default, the directory /workspaces/isaac_ros-dev in the container is mapped from ~/workspaces/isaac_ros-dev on the host machine if it exists, or the current working directory from where the script was invoked otherwise. The host directory the container maps to can be explicitly set by running the script with the desired path as the first argument:

scripts/run_dev.sh <path to workspace>

Configuring run_dev.sh

run_dev.sh prepares a base Docker image and mounts your target workspace into the running container. The Docker image is assembled by parsing a period-delimited image key into matching Dockerfiles and building each one in a sequence. For example, an image key of first.second.third could match {Dockerfile.first, Dockerfile.second, Dockerfile.third} where run_dev.sh will build the image for Dockerfile.first, then feed that image as the base image while building Dockerfile.second and so on. The file matching looks for the largest subsequence, so first.second.third could also match {Dockerfile.first.second, Dockerfile.third} depending on which files exist in the search paths. Using this pattern, you can add your own layers on top of the base images provided in Isaac ROS to setup your environment your way, such as installing additional packages to use.

If you write a file with the name .isaac_ros_common-config in the same directory as the run_dev.sh, you can configure the development environment. The following keys can be configured in .isaac_ros_common-config:

Key	Type	Description	Examples
`CONFIG_IMAGE_KEY`	String	Image key with period-delimited components	`humble.nav2.realsense` `humble`
`CONFIG_DOCKER_SEARCH_DIRS`	Bash array of string	List of directories to search for Dockerfiles when matching	`($HOME/ros_ws/docker $HOME/docker)`

For example, suppose you had a directory structure as follows:

workspaces/isaac_ros-dev
    workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/ros_ws
        workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/ros_ws/src
        workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/ros_ws/src/isaac_ros_common
        workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/ros_ws/src/isaac_ros_common/scripts
        workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/ros_ws/src/isaac_ros_common/scripts/.isaac_ros_common-config

        workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/ros_ws/docker
        workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/ros_ws/docker/Dockerfile.mine
        workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/ros_ws/docker/myfile.txt

where Dockerfile.mine can be your own custom image layers of the form using its host directory for Docker build context:

ARG BASE_IMAGE
FROM ${BASE_IMAGE}

... steps ...

COPY myfile.txt /myfile.txt

... more steps ...

You could extend the base image launched as a container by run_dev.sh as follows.

workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/ros_ws/src/isaac_ros_common/scripts/.isaac_ros_common-config

CONFIG_IMAGE_KEY="humble.nav2.mine"
CONFIG_DOCKER_SEARCH_DIRS=(workspaces/isaac_ros-dev/ros_ws/docker)

This configures the image key to match with mine included and where to look first for the Dockerfiles before the default.

Isaac ROS Common

Latest Update

Update 2022-10-19: Minor updates and bugfixes

Supported Platforms

This package is designed and tested to be compatible with ROS2 Humble running on Jetson or an x86_64 system with an NVIDIA GPU.

Note: Versions of ROS2 earlier than Humble are not supported. This package depends on specific ROS2 implementation features that were only introduced beginning with the Humble release.

Platform	Hardware	Software	Notes
Jetson	Jetson Orin Jetson Xavier	JetPack 5.0.2	For best performance, ensure that power settings are configured appropriately.
x86_64	NVIDIA GPU	Ubuntu 20.04+ CUDA 11.6.1+

Updates

Date	Changes
2022-10-19	Minor updates and bugfixes
2022-08-31	Update to be compatible with JetPack 5.0.2
2022-06-30	Support ROS2 Humble and miscellaneous bug fixes.
2022-06-16	Update `run_dev.sh` and removed `isaac_ros_nvengine`
2021-10-20	Migrated to NVIDIA-ISAAC-ROS, added `isaac_ros_nvengine` and `isaac_ros_nvengine_interfaces` packages
2021-08-11	Initial release to NVIDIA-AI-IOT

chitoku / isaac_ros_common