ROS2 ON VOXL2

[taiwohazeez]

Hi,
I have been trying to get ROS2 on my VOXL2 (SDK 1.4.5), I am using Ubuntu 22.04(Jammy) which doesnt support ROS2 Foxy, I have ROS2 Humble on my host PC and tried running ROS2 Foxy using a docker, but I have certain issues with ROS2 on my VOXL2, I have voxl-mpa-to-ros2 installed, but the systemd service is missing or not registered. Currently, my APT repo isn't working, and i get an error 404 when i try getting the packages from https://voxl-packages.modalai.com/voxl-suite/.

Can you assist with this? Or am I doing it wrongly ?

Thanks,
Taiwo

[teddy.zaremba]

Hi @taiwohazeez,

1. SDK 1.4.5 uses Ubuntu 18.04 which corresponds with ROS2 Foxy.

2. What're you trying to install from that link? The official guide for installing voxl-mpa-to-ros2 is here. Are you able to run voxl-mpa-to-ros2 via ros2 run voxl_mpa_to_ros2 voxl_mpa_to_ros2. If not, check that you ran the setup script source /opt/ros/foxy/mpa-to-ros2/install/setup.bash.

Best,
Ted

[taiwohazeez]

@teddy-zaremba thanks for the response, i am trying to install voxl-mpa-to-ros2, but i am being skpetical if it would be compatible with ROS2 Humble on my host PC since I have Ubuntu 22.04 on it and S.D.K 1.4.5 uses Ubuntu 18.04. Do i have to get a PC with Ubuntu 18.04 on it? or is there a way around it with my UBuntu 22.04?

Thanks,
Taiwo

[teddy.zaremba]

@taiwohazeez Sorry maybe I'm misunderstanding. You can't run voxl-mpa-to-ros2 on your host computer regardless because it won't have access to either the libmodal pipe functions necessary to get the data from the VOXL nor the processes serving up that data.

If instead you mean your host computer should be able to receive ROS messages from voxl-mpa-to-ros2 on your VOXL over the network then that should work via the DDS,

[taiwohazeez]

@teddy-zaremba What I am saying is, I trying to install ROS2 on my VOXL2, but since its supported by Ubuntu 18.04, does it matter that I am using Ubuntu 22.04 on my host computer?

Thanks,
Taiwo

[taiwohazeez]

@teddy-zaremba OH I just saw the DDS, I will let you know if i get through with it.

Thanks for your time.
Taiwo

[taiwohazeez]

@teddy-zaremba Hi,

I'm currently following the official instructions to build and install voxl-mpa-to-ros2 on my VOXL2 (running SDK 1.4.5).

However, I cannot access the modalai/qrb5165-emulator:1.5 Docker image.

When I run:
docker pull modalai/qrb5165-emulator:1.5

I get:
pull access denied for modalai/qrb5165-emulator...

Could you please grant me access to this Docker image, or provide an alternate public image, .tar export, or another method for building the .deb package for voxl-mpa-to-ros2?

Thanks,
Taiwo

[teddy.zaremba]

Hi @taiwohazeez

Here's the instructions for installing the qrb5165 emulator

RB5 Emulator

ModalAI technical documentation for VOXL and VOXL 2 Companion Computers for PX4 and ArduPilot Obstacle Avoidance and GPS-denied navigation, assembled in the USA

ModalAI Technical Docs (docs.modalai.com)

[taiwohazeez]

@teddy-zaremba i tried cloning voxl-mpa-to-ros repository using git clone https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/services/voxl-mpa-to-ros2.git, and i am prompted to input a username. I thought it should be public access.

Kindly help..

[Alex Kushleyev]

@taiwohazeez , the repository address is actually https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/utilities/voxl-mpa-to-ros2.git , please try that.

[taiwohazeez]

@Alex-Kushleyev thank you for your response. i have been able to clone it, but I have still not been able to install ros2 on my voxl2.

So, after cloning the repository, i ran the install deb script using ./install_build_deps.sh qrb5165 sdk-1.5
THen i ran the build script using ./install_build_deps.sh qrb5165 sdk-1.0, but it keeps failing when building px4_msgs.

Am I doing this wrongly? (By the way, i used chatgpt).

[Alex Kushleyev]

@taiwohazeez , may need help from @teddy-zaremba regarding ROS2.

Alex

[teddy.zaremba]

@taiwohazeez Could you post the error and we can take a look?

Also here's an easier way of installing it if you just want to run this script on the voxl.

wget http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.5/binary-arm64/voxl-ros2-foxy_0.0.1_arm64.deb
wget http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.5/binary-arm64/voxl-mpa-to-ros2_0.0.7_arm64.deb

sudo dpkg -i voxl-ros2-foxy
sudo dpkg -i voxl-mpa-to-ros2

voxl-configure-mpa-to-ros2