ROS Chicago: ROS2 Installation & Setup

Hello everyone. We’re due for another ROS Chicago meetup. I was able to secure limited space at 1871 in the Merchandise Mart (222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654). Unlike Monk’s, this time we’ll have a professional conference room with a whiteboard and projection monitor. In-person RSVP is limited to 8 spots which are on a first-signup basis, so please consider your holiday plans prior to claiming a spot. Note that signups will close one day prior to the event.

Given the limited space, I’d like to open things up to a virtual audience as well though, but could use some assistance. We need someone that can physically attend the IRL meeting and be in charge of ensuring proper management of the virtual meeting utilizing Google Meetup. For instance, making sure the meeting is recorded, and appropriate broadcasting focus is given to anyone in-person, or virtual speakers. I’ve got a USB camera that can be used so the volunteer can record the room while still working. Send me a message through meetup.com if interested in helping out. For those attending online, a virtual meeting link is provided upon registration.

So, what’s on the agenda? Now that a few of us have gotten acquainted, it’s probably best to start from the beginning. If you’ve joined this group, you’ve probably got a decent understanding of the role ROS plays in robotics. Then what? How do we start working with ROS as developers, roboticists, and innovators? That’s where we’ll pick up - how to install the latest version of ROS2, Humble Hawksbill. Sure, for learning purposes you could leverage The Construct (https://www.theconstructsim.com) that provides an out-of-the-box cloud learning environment, but that won’t help when it comes time to get a physical robot moving.

We’ll take a workshop approach to this, so if you’d like to follow along feel free to do so and bring a laptop. It’s also recommended that you come prepared with a clean installation of Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop ready to go in a virtual machine (Hyper-V, VirtualBox, etc.). Installing ROS2 is something I’m personally in the middle of learning, so hopefully I’ve got it figured out before then. Otherwise we’ll put our heads together and get through it collectively. As a stretch goal, we’ll also try to get the Gazebo simulation system working as well.

You can join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/zrExFQM2Gh, which contains a pinned link to our shared Google Drive for other documents like volunteer needs, a meeting-by-meeting agenda, and any other pertinent information for the group.

December’s agenda will include:

• Introduction
• Sponsor message
• Workshop: Installing ROS2 (Humble Hawksbill on Ubuntu Desktop 22.04)
• Stretch: Gazebo setup

We’ve only got space from 6-8pm, so the schedule will be kept tight to reflect that. After the meetup, there will be options to hang out at a nearby watering hole for food and drinks like Monk’s or Gilt Bar. See you all there!

– Mike