roboco 0.0.3

A tool to generate Dockerfiles for use in robotics, as well as a script to build and enter these containers, with support for graphical applications, GPU passthrough, realtime scheduling, host networking and full device access.

Robot Containers

This repository contains Dockerfiles for building containers for various robots. It also includes a python script run.py that wraps the docker command to enable:

• building, starting and entering the container in one step
• graphical applications
• nvidia GPU passthrough
• realtime scheduling
• host networking
• full external device access (USB, cameras, etc.)

Finally, it includes roboco, a script for generating a new project from the included Dockerfiles.

Table of Contents

• Requirements
• Installation
• Usage
  • Creating a new project
  • Running the container
  • Customising the container
• Available containers

Requirements

Docker

• Tested with Docker 20.10.23.

• Install on Ubuntu using sudo apt install docker.io (other installation methods may not play well with the nvidia-docker2 runtime.)

• Follow "Manage Docker as a non-root user" at https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/linux-postinstall/

nvidia-docker2 (for GPU support, optional)

• Install nvidia-docker2 by following https://docs.nvidia.com/datacenter/cloud-native/container-toolkit/install-guide.html#setting-up-nvidia-container-toolkit

VSCode - Dev Containers Extension (Optional)

• Tested with v0.292.0 of Dev Containers extension https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers

Installation

Using pip

pip install roboco

Using git

git clone https://github.com/monashrobotics/robot_containers.git
cd robot_containers
pip install .

Usage

Creating a new project

roboco init

Follow the prompts to select the robot type and additional features.

Once completed, there will be two new files in your current directory: Dockerfile and run.py.

Running the container

Build the image and run the container using:

./run.py

Customising the container

The Dockerfile can be edited to add additional dependencies or change the base image.

When you make changes to the Dockerfile, you will need to rebuild the image using:

./run.py build

Then remove the old container and start a new one:

./run.py rm
./run.py

Available Containers

Robot / ROS Distro (Ubuntu OS)	ROS 1 Melodic (18.04)	ROS 1 Noetic (20.04)	ROS 2 Foxy (20.04)	ROS 2 Humble (22.04)
ABB YuMi	✅	✅	❌	❌
Baxter	❌	✅	❌	❌
Fetch	❌	✅	❌	❌
Jackal	❌	✅	✅	✅
Panda	❌	✅	❌	❌
Ridgeback	❌	✅	❌	❌
UR5	❌	✅	❌	✅

Driver / ROS Distro (Ubuntu OS)	ROS 1 Melodic (18.04)	ROS 1 Noetic (20.04)	ROS 2 Foxy (20.04)	ROS 2 Humble (22.04)
RealSense Camera	✅	✅	✅	✅
Velodyne LiDAR	✅	✅	✅	✅
Robotiq 2F-85 Gripper	✅	✅	❌	❌
Robotiq FT-300 Force-Torque Sensor	✅	✅	❌	❌