Thresher AUV

URI Hydrobotics

Quickstart (Dev)

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop (Linux users can install docker + docker-compose packages)
• Windows users: Ensure WSL2 backend is enabled in Docker Desktop
• GNU Make (Windows only — Linux/macOS already include it)
• The docker container itself is ~5.5 gigabytes

The dev container is built using a larger ROS framework (ROS Humble Desktop), providing some additional simulation and front-end packages you wouldn't necessarily need on the Thresher AUV.

1. Install Docker

2. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/URI-Hydrobotics-Team/Thresher.git
   cd Thresher

   • !!Windows Users!! You may need to install GNU Make to use the Makefile

     1. Install GNU Make

        winget install GnuWin32.Make

     2. Add to your PATH

        1. Open Start Menu --> Edit system environment variables
        2. System Properties --> Environment Variables
        3. Under system (or user) variables select PATH --> Edit
        4. Paste the path to where the make.exe file is located (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin)
        5. Test by opening a new terminal and running make --version

3. Build the dev container:

   make build-dev

4. Run the container:

   make run-dev

5. Build your ROS workspace:

   cd ~/auv_ws
   colcon build
   source install/setup.bash
   ros2 launch <package_name> <launch_file>

Regularly run sudo apt update, sudo apt upgrade

Quickstart Runtime

On AUV computer

1. Run the installation bash script (it should only work on Ubuntu version 22.04)

   ./scripts/install_runtime.sh

2. Build the ROS workspace

   cd ~/auv_ws
   colcon build
   source install/setup.bash
   ros2 launch <package_name> <launch_file>

Running the basic Talker/Listener Demo

1. Launch the talker (while within your container)

cd /auv_ws
source install/setup.bash #Remember to always setup the bash file
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

2. In a separate terminal connect to the currently running container

   1. Look for the name of the existing container with docker ps

      It should look like this:

      CONTAINER ID    IMAGE               COMMAND                 CREATED         STATUS          PORTS    NAMES
      <container id>  thresher-ros2-dev   "/ros_entrypoint.sh …"  _ minutes ago   Up _ minutes    <ports>  <names>

   2. Access the existing container:

      docker exec -it <container name> bash

3. Run the listener in your 2nd terminal

cd /auv_ws
source install/setup.bash #Remember to always setup the bash file
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp listener

Note

There's a way to run this in 2 separate containers and still have the listener receive the messages from the talker.