Building your workspace

This tutorial will help you build the and ROS2 Foxy workspace with all packages needed to run the MARCH exoskeleton. You should have followed Install ROS and March before you can build your workspace.

This tutorial will walk you through how to setup your workspace such that you can: 1. Build ROS2 2. Launch ROS2

Note

You will have to perform most steps multiple times throughout the development process. In the sections Convenient aliases you can find some convenient aliases.

Building ROS2

Before you can run the code you should build it, to create/update the executable used to run the code.

To build the MARCH ROS2 packages, you have to source your ROS2 Foxy installation and then invoke colcon:

source /opt/ros/foxy/local_setup.bash
cd ~/march/ros2
colcon build

Run ROS2

In order to run ROS2, you have to source both ROS2 Foxy and the ROS2 MARCH packages.

source /opt/ros/foxy/local_setup.bash
source ~/march/ros2/install/local_setup.bash
ros2 launch march_launch march_simulation.launch.py

Convenient aliases

In the march repo there is a bash file containing shortcuts to easily build and run the code, and some other utilities. To use these aliases in the terminal, the file should be sourced in the ~/.bashrc file, as shown below.

source ~/march/march_aliases.sh

# Source ROS distribution
alias sfox='source /opt/ros/foxy/local_setup.bash'
alias svenv='source ~/march/.venv_march/bin/activate'

# Source MARCH packages
alias sros2='source ~/march/ros2/install/local_setup.bash'

# Navigate to MARCH directory
alias cm='cd ~/march/'
alias cm2='cd ~/march/ros2/'

# Build and run ROS2
alias march_build_ros2='sfox && cm2 && colcon build'
alias march_run_ros2_sim='sfox && sros2 && ros2 launch march_launch march_simulation.launch.py'
alias march_run_ros2_training='sfox && sros2 && ros2 launch march_launch march.launch.py'

# Clean march builds
# script to ask for confirmation before cleaning ros
confirm() {
    echo -n "Do you want to run $*? [N/y] "
    read -N 1 REPLY
    echo
    if test "$REPLY" = "y" -o "$REPLY" = "Y"; then
        "$@"
    else
        echo "Cancelled by user"
    fi
}
alias march_clean_ros2='confirm rm -rf ~/march/ros2/build ~/march/ros2/log ~/march/ros2/install'

# To give errors colors in ros2
export RCUTILS_COLORIZED_OUTPUT=1

# Install dependencies
alias install_dep_ros2='cm2 && sfox && rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -y --rosdistro foxy'

# Format code
alias format_cpp='cm && python3 .scripts/run-clang-format.py -r ros1/src ros2/src --style=file -i'
alias format_py='cm && black .'

# Start Clion & PyCharm with no consol output
alias pycharm_no_out='pycharm-professional > /dev/null 2> /dev/null & disown'
alias clion_no_out='clion > /dev/null 2> /dev/null & disown'