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Installation

We assume you are using at least Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS and ROS Indigo, even though the simulator package should also work with later versions (minor adjustments may be required). Please refer to the installation instructions for

The uuv_simulator package has currently been released for kinetic, lunar and melodic. To install all the packages, run 

sudo apt install ros-kinetic-uuv-simulator

or 

sudo apt install ros-lunar-uuv-simulator

or 

sudo apt install ros-melodic-uuv-simulator

Installation from source

Dependencies

Checkout below the needed dependencies for ROS indigo, kinetic and melodic. Choose the ones you need according to the ROS version you are using. It is recommended to also install catkin_tools.

Using uuv_simulator with indigo and Gazebo 7

  • To install ROS Indigo, first follow the installation instructions in this wiki page and choose the installation of the ros-indigo-desktop-full package.

  • Follow the instructions from the Gazebo 7 installation tutorial

  • Install the necessary ROS packages for Gazebo 7 

sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-gazebo7-*
  • Some extra packages that might also be needed
sudo apt-get install protobuf-compiler protobuf-c-compiler

Info

To use the vehicles with robotic manipulators using indigo, it might also be necessary to use a different version of the ros-control modules (listed below). In that case, clone the following repositories in the src folder 

git clone https://github.com/ros-controls/control_msgs.git
cd control_msgs
git checkout c0b322b
cd ..

git clone https://github.com/ros-controls/control_toolbox.git
cd control_toolbox
git checkout 5ccdc6d
cd ..

git clone https://github.com/ros-simulation/gazebo_ros_pkgs.git
cd gazebo_ros_pkgs
git checkout 231b76d
cd ..

git clone https://github.com/ros-controls/realtime_tools.git
cd realtime_tools
git checkout bf55298
cd ..

git clone https://github.com/ros-controls/ros_controllers.git
cd ros_controllers
git checkout b4dc152
cd ..
Using uuv_simulator with kinetic and Gazebo 7
sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade gazebo7 libgazebo7-dev
Using uuv_simulator with kinetic and Gazebo 9
sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-gazebo9-*
Using uuv_simulator with melodic and Gazebo 9
Creating and configuring a workspace

If you don't have the ROS workspace yet, you should run the following and then clone the uuv_simulator package in the ~/catkin_ws/src folder

mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/src

Be sure to install catkin tools package by following the installation instructions on the catkin tools documentation page. After the installation, initialize the catkin workspace

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin init

You can then clone the UUV simulator into your src folder

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/uuvsimulator/uuv_simulator.git

Configure the environment variables by adding the following lines in ~/.bashrc (replace kinetic with the ROS version you are using).

Info

If you install a version of Gazebo newer than 7.X, you might need to adjust gazebo-7 below (e.g. gazebo-9). You can find out which version you are using by typing

gazebo --version

in your terminal.

source /usr/share/gazebo-7/setup.sh
source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash
source $HOME/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

After saving these changes, remember to source the .bashrc by either typing

source ~/.bashrc
Installation

To install the simulator's dependencies, you can run one of the following commands (see which of the ROS/Gazebo combinations from dependencies you have on your machine):

  • For indigo + Gazebo 7
cd ~/catkin_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro=indigo -y --skip-keys "gazebo gazebo_msgs gazebo_plugins gazebo_ros gazebo_ros_control gazebo_ros_pkgs"
  • For kinetic + Gazebo 7 
cd ~/catkin_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro=kinetic -y
  • For kinetic + Gazebo 9 
cd ~/catkin_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro=kinetic -y --skip-keys "gazebo gazebo_msgs gazebo_plugins gazebo_ros gazebo_ros_control gazebo_ros_pkgs"

Info

In case you are using lunar, you might need to clone the following repositories directly to your ~/catkin_ws/src folder and build them with the rest of the packages 

cd ~/catkin/src
git clone https://github.com/tu-darmstadt-ros-pkg/hector_localization 
git clone https://github.com/ros-teleop/teleop_tools

Finally, build your workspace using 

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make install

or 

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin build

in case you are using catkin_tools.

Tip

If after compiling your catkin workspace using catkin build ROS seems to not update the paths to the packages even after you run

cd ~/catkin_ws
source devel/setup.bash

you can try disabling the option to source the install folder of your catkin workspace by running 

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin config --no-install
catkin clean --all

Then rebuild your workspace 

catkin build
source devel/setup.bash