Setup your workstation - LCAS/RBT1001 GitHub Wiki

The following are the instructions to setup your PC so that you are ready to do the workshop tasks for this workshop. These instructions should be repeated at every new session, for two reasons:

  • the lab PCs are setup to delete all data and installations at every reboot
  • we update the code in this repository weekly, hence to be sure you are always working with the most up-to-date code.

1. Clone the repository

If you are cloning for the first time:

If you are on a Windows PC the following two additional steps are required:

  • Open a terminal(e.g., window's powershell), type git config --global core.autocrlf false and press Enter
  • Make sure docker is running by launching the docker desktop application

Then:

  1. Open a terminal (e.g., window's powershell)
  2. Execute the following command: git clone https://github.com/LCAS/RBT1001.git

If you already have a local copy:

  1. Open a terminal (e.g., window's powershell)
  2. Locate and move to the RBT1001 folder on your system; e.g. cd /home/computing/RBT1001
  3. Pull the latest changes: git pull

2. Open the ROS2 container

The system configuration for writing and executing ROS code is already setup for you in a Docker container which is directly importable into your VS Code workspace. This will avoid you executing many additional steps the you will need instead to perform if you want to run it on your PC.

  1. Open VS Code (e.g., Alt+F2, type code, press Enter)

  2. Click on the blue icon in the bottom left corner

  3. Select "Open Folder in Container..."

  4. Select and Open the folder RBT1001

The first time you perform this, it will download and compile the ROS system and all the dependencies; therefore, it will take quite some time.

3. Connect to VNC (Graphical Interface)

  1. Click on the "Port" in VSCode, find the "novnc" port, right click on it to open the menu, and then choose either "Open in Browser" to open it outside of VSCode or "Preview in Editor" to have it open within VSCode:

  2. (recommended) Set the dekstop scaling by clicking on the settings cog and choose scaling mode "Remote Resizing" if it's not set

  3. click on "Connect" and enter the password vscode when prompted: