ROS Workspace Setup#

Overview#

In this module, we will set up our ROS workspaces that are required to run our autonomous software stacks.

Installing the nova_carter_description package#

The nova_carter_description package contains all the TF configurations and robot description details (URDF files) for Nova Carter. These instructions—adapted for Isaac Sim 4.5 and Isaac ROS 3.2—ensure that your environment is properly configured for integrating the robot’s description into your ROS workspace.

  1. Set Up Locale for UTF-8 Support

locale  # check for UTF-8

sudo apt update && sudo apt install locales
sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
sudo update-locale LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

locale  # verify settings

  1. Install Required Dependencies

sudo apt update && sudo apt install gnupg wget
sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository universe

  1. Register NVIDIA’s GPG Key and Repository

    • Choose one of the following options based on your location:

For the US CDN:

wget -qO - https://isaac.download.nvidia.com/isaac-ros/repos.key | sudo apt-key add -grep -qxF "deb https://isaac.download.nvidia.com/isaac-ros/release-3 $(lsb_release -cs) release-3.0" /etc/apt/sources.list || \echo "deb https://isaac.download.nvidia.com/isaac-ros/release-3 $(lsb_release -cs) release-3.0" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.listsudo apt-get update

For the China CDN:

wget -qO - https://isaac.download.nvidia.cn/isaac-ros/repos.key | sudo apt-key add -grep -qxF "deb https://isaac.download.nvidia.cn/isaac-ros/release-3 $(lsb_release -cs) release-3.0" /etc/apt/sources.list || \echo "deb https://isaac.download.nvidia.cn/isaac-ros/release-3 $(lsb_release -cs) release-3.0" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.listsudo apt-get update

  1. Install the nova_carter_description package

    • Finally, install the package with:

sudo apt install ros-humble-nova-carter-description

Now our ROS workspace has the necessary robot description files to support subsequent modules

Installing the ROS workspace#

Let’s configure and build your ROS workspace to ensure it is ready for integrating Isaac ROS packages and running simulation components. We will verify that your terminal is properly sourced, update package dependencies, compile the workspace, and source the built setup file.

  1. Open a new terminal and run:

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash

  1. Run the following commands to initialize and update rosdep:

rosdep init
rosdep update

  1. Navigate to your ROS workspace directory, sim_control_script_and_carter_ws/ros_ws, and install the required dependencies from the workspace source:

cd sim_control_script_and_carter_ws/ros_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

  1. Build your workspace using colcon:

colcon build --symlink-install

  1. After the build completes, source the generated setup file to overlay the new packages into your current shell session:

source sim_control_script_and_carter_ws/install/setup.bash

Review#

You now have a workspace that is ready to run all the required packages. Our ROS workspace is fully configured and ready to support the necessary packages for our simulation environment. We’re now prepared to move forward into more advanced modules.

We prepared the simulation environment by installing the nova_carter_description package and configuring the ROS workspace. These steps ensured that all necessary robot descriptions, TF configurations, and dependencies are in place for seamless integration with Isaac Sim. With this foundation, we’re ready to move forward into navigation.