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Using Docker for the SuperMegaBot Software

Installation

  1. Install Docker by following the official website

  2. (Required if you want to run GUI application with VNC) Install Real VNC Viewer by following the official website

  3. Clone this repository to your local machine

Running the Docker container

There are two ways to run the Docker container. Choosing which one to use depends on how you want to use the GUI application.

If you have a Linux machine and want to display the GUI application on your screen directly, you can use X11 forwarding. If you are using Windows or Mac, you should use VNC to access the GUI application.

Running the container with X11 forwarding enabled

Important

It only works on Linux. If you are using Windows or Mac, please refer to the next section.

Run the following command to start the Docker container with X11 forwarding:

docker compose -f compose-x11.yaml up

If everything goes well, you should see instructions in the terminal on how to attach to the container. You should keep the docker compose running and open a new terminal to attach to the container with the following command:

docker exec -it smb_container_x11 zsh

Note

If you are using a different shell, you can replace zsh with bash, tmux, etc.

If you open a GUI application in the container, it should be displayed on your screen.

Once you are finished, you can stop the container by pressing Ctrl+C in the terminal where you ran docker compose up.

(Optional) You can remove the container by running the following command:

docker compose -f compose-x11.yaml down

Running the container with VNC enabled

Note

This method works on all platforms.

Run the following command to start the Docker container with VNC:

docker compose up

You can attach to the container with the following command:

docker exec -it smb_container zsh

Note

If you are using a different shell, you can replace zsh with bash, tmux, etc.

If you open a GUI application in the container, you can access it by connecting to localhost:5901 with a VNC client. The password is robotx.

Once you are finished, you can stop the container by pressing Ctrl+C in the terminal where you ran docker compose up.

(Optional) You can remove the container by running the following command:

docker compose down

Open multiple terminals inside the container

When working with ROS, you may need to open multiple terminals to run different commands. You can copy and paste the docker exec ... command to multiple terminals and run to open multiple terminals inside the container. As long as the docker compose up command is running, you can attach to the same container multiple times. It won't create a new container.

Alternatively, you can use tmux to manage multiple terminals in one terminal. For details on how to use tmux, please refer to the official documentation.

Try a GUI application

The default catkin workspace is /workspaces/rss_workspace.

You can try to run the smb gazebo simulation inside the container to see if the GUI application works.

You can run the following command to start the simulation:

cd /workspaces/rss_workspace
catkin build smb_gazebo
source devel/setup.zsh
roslaunch smb_gazebo sim.launch

If everything goes well, you should see the Gazebo simulation running and the GUI on your screen or VNC viewer.