CS422 Docker Container

Docker container for cs422 Introduction to Robotics

This repo contains an experimental docker container setup for use in cs422 Introduction to Robotics module. The repo is being made available as a convenience for students that have a familiarity with docker and who would rather use docker than the virtualbox image.

Requirements and Setup

To install and run the container you will need to be running Linux and will first need to install docker communinty edition. This will vary based on your particular operating system so you will need to find a suitable walk-through.

Here are a few for more common variants of Ubuntu:

• Ubuntu 18.04
• Ubuntu 20.04

Building the container

To build the container use the build script from the cs422_docker folder: john@laptop:~/cs422_docker$ ./build

Running the container

When executed, the container will result in a bash shell running inside the container inside a terminator window. Exiting the terminator window will terminated the container.

In order to support a persistent file storage (i.e. to store your ROS workspace files) the run script expects a cs422_ws folder in your home folder. When run, this folder is mounted in your home folder within the container (i.e. /home/<username>/cs422_ws). This folder will be created automatically if it does not exist on the first run.

To run the container use the run script john@laptop:~/cs422_docker$ ./run

Development workflow

All ROS related commands, such as catkin_make,rosrun ..., roslaunch ..., etc. should be run inside the container (i.e. in the terminator window), whereas you should develop your code (i.e. run your IDE or text-editor) on your host machine.

The typical workflow is:

1. Edit your code on your host machine using your favourite text editor or IDE
2. Spin up the container
   • cd ~/cs422_docker
   • ./run
3. In the container window run whichever ROS commands you wish
4. Iterate steps 1. & 3.