Advantech Robotic Suite/Container
Contents
Introduction
ROS applications may rely on specific ROS distribution, software versions, libraries, and configurations. Using containers ensures consistent application behavior across different environments, as the container encapsulates the required dependencies and environment settings, independent of the host system.
Advantech Robotic Suite offers Docker Container framework for simplifies the development, deployment, and management of ROS systems.
Advantech Robotic Suite container framework provides the following benefits:
- Portability: Containers are portable units that can run on different systems and platforms, be it in development, testing, or production environments. This makes it easier to deploy and share ROS applications across different machines and environments.
- Isolation: Containers provide an isolated environment, separating ROS applications from the host system and other containers. This helps prevent conflicts and interference between different applications, enhancing system stability and reliability.
- Reproducibility: Containers ensure that the runtime environment of an application remains consistent across different deployments and executions, ensuring reproducibility. This is valuable for developers, testers, and operators, as they can reproduce and debug issues in different environments.
- Scalability: Container technology offers scalability, allowing for quick replication and scaling of container instances based on demand. This makes it easier to add new nodes, services, or topics to the ROS system and dynamically adjust the number of containers based on the workload.
List of Advantech Robotic Suite Containers:
| Docker Container | Content | Note |
|---|---|---|
| edge-ros2-foxy | Advantech add-ons services includes SUSI Node, Modbus-Master Node, OPCUAClient Node and ROS2 bag database based on ROS2 Foxy. | |
| dev-ros2-foxy | This container provides a pre-configured ROS2 Foxy environment along with examples for subscribing to and controlling ros2 nodes in edge-ros2-foxy. | Request:
|
| dev-ros2-humble | This container provides a pre-configured ROS2 Humble environment along with examples for subscribing to and controlling ros2 nodes in edge-ros2-humble. | Request:
|
| util-ros2-humble | This container is a ready-to-use ROS2 toolkit with rviz, rqt, cartographer, nav2, and moveit. It's great for building robots quickly. | Request:
|
List of Advantech Robotic Suite Extension Containers:
| Docker Container | Content | Note |
|---|---|---|
| usbcam-ros2-humble | This container includes a pre-configured ROS node for USB cameras, allowing easy integration of video streams into ROS2 as messages. | Request:
|
| realsense-ros2-humble | This container provides a ready-to-use ROS node for Intel RealSense cameras, simplifying the conversion of depth, color, and point cloud data into ROS2 messages. | Request:
|
| openvino_object_detection-ros2-humble | This container demonstrates Intel OpenVINO's object detection in ROS2, enabling real-time detection using image topics or physical cameras, making it suitable for computer vision applications. | Request:
|
Develop ROS Container
Develop ROS container image that assists developers in building its own ROS containerized applications.
How To
Start docker container
Step1: Launch the docker container of dev-ros2-foxy
$ cd /usr/local/Advantech/ros/container/docker
$ ./launch.sh dev-ros2-foxy
Step2: Accessing the container for development and debugging
$ docker exec -it dev-ros2-foxy bash
Examples
Examples demonstration on how to subscribe to and control services of other ROS2 nodes.
Stop docker container
$ cd /usr/local/Advantech/ros/container/docker
$ ./stop.sh dev-ros2-foxy
Build Your Docker Container
To build a Docker container for your ROS2 application and integrate Advantech's add-ons services, you can following the steps.
Step1: Define a Dockerfile
Create a file called "Dockerfile" that specifies the instructions for building the container based on dev-ros2-foxy. This file includes details such as the base image, dependencies, environment variables, and commands to run inside the container.
FROM advigw/dev-ros2-foxy:1.0.0 # 1. Copy prerequisites of your application into the container # WORKDIR /root # COPY prerequisite/<your_application> /root/prerequisite # 2. Install dependencies or libraries # RUN apt-get update # RUN apt-get install <some_dependency> # 3. Execute your application automatically upon container startup. # CMD [<application_command>]
Step2: Build the Docker image
Use the Docker command-line to build the Docker image based on the Dockerfile. This process involves pulling the necessary base image, executing the instructions in the Dockerfile, and creating a layered image with all the specified components.
$ docker build -t ros-example -f Dockerfile .
Step3: Define the Docker Compose services
Create a file called "docker-compose.yml", in the Docker Compose file, define the services, their image references, and any necessary configurations such as environment variables, port mappings, volume bindings, etc. Use the syntax provided by Docker Compose to define each service.
version: '2.0'
services:
ros-example:
image: ros-example
container_name: ros-example
restart: always
networks:
- adv-ros-network
logging:
options:
max-size: 10M
environment:
- ROS_DOMAIN_ID=${ROS_DOMAIN_ID}
networks:
adv-ros-network:
name: adv-ros-network
Step4: Start the containers using Docker Compose
Execute the docker-compose up command in the directory where the Docker Compose file is located. This command will start the containers as defined in the Compose file.
Note: When using the docker-compose command, please avoid using 'sudo' if you need to use the ROS_DOMAIN_ID environment variable. Otherwise, the variable may not be found during execution.
$ docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d
Step5: Test and validate
Open a new interactive bash shell within the container.
$ docker exec -it ros-example bash
Then test ROS2 Example and your applications in container.
Utility ROS Container
The Utility ROS Container image integrates various commonly used tools and utilities for ROS2 users, including RViz2, RQT, Cartographer, Nav2, and MoveIt. This container enables users to quickly access and utilize these features.
How To
Launch RViz2
Step1: Launch the docker container of utli-ros2-humble
$ cd /usr/local/Advantech/ros/container/docker
$ ./launch.sh utli-ros2-humble
Step2: Accessing the container
$ docker exec -it utli-ros2-humble bash
Step3: Launch rviz2
$ rviz2
Launch RQT
Step1: Launch the docker container of utli-ros2-humble
$ cd /usr/local/Advantech/ros/container/docker
$ ./launch.sh utli-ros2-humble
Step2: Accessing the container
$ docker exec -it utli-ros2-humble bash
Step3: Launch rviz2
$ rqt
Launch Cartographer
Step1: Launch the docker container of utli-ros2-humble
$ cd /usr/local/Advantech/ros/container/docker
$ ./launch.sh utli-ros2-humble
Step2: Accessing the container
$ docker exec -it utli-ros2-humble bash
Step3: Launch Cartographer
$ ros2 launch cartographer_ros my_robot.launch.py
Step1: Launch the docker container of utli-ros2-humble
$ cd /usr/local/Advantech/ros/container/docker
$ ./launch.sh utli-ros2-humble
Step2: Accessing the container
$ docker exec -it utli-ros2-humble bash
Step3: Launch Nav2
$ ros2 launch nav2_bringup tb3_simulation_launch.py
$ MoveIt </syntaxhighlight>