ROS Kinetic + Gazebo on Docker HOWTO

Ubuntu 16.04 + ROS Kinetic with Gazebo 7 or later.

Step 1: Install Docker

Install docker https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/linux/ubuntu/

To run docker without super user:

  sudo groupadd docker
  sudo gpasswd -a ${USER} docker
  sudo service docker restart

Step 2: Use NVIDIA acceleration

Install nvidia-docker (to get HW acceleration) https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-docker/wiki

Step 3: Creating the container

This repository contain the Dockerfile. Move into the directory containing the file and type

The command below will create the container from the base image if it doesn't exist and log you in.

docker build -t ros-kinetic-gazebo7 .

Step 4: Start the container

To make it easier, I created the launcher launch_docker.sh (you might need to call chmod +x ./launch_docker.sh first).

 ./launch_docker.sh

Step 5: Build and deploy

ROS and Gazebo uses catkin buildsystem

cd workspace
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

Step 6: Run

First you need to initialize the ROS Master

roscore &

Then use the roslaunch command to launch both the nodes and gazebo

roslaunch ros_gz_test counter.launch

Press Ctrl+C to exit.

References

• http://wiki.ros.org/docker/Tutorials/Docker
• http://wiki.ros.org/docker/Tutorials/Hardware%20Acceleration
• http://wiki.ros.org/docker/Tutorials/GUI