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Getting Started

This guide will help you set up your development environment to work with the Physical AI textbook. We'll cover the installation of essential tools and frameworks.

System Requirements​

  • Operating System: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (recommended)
  • RAM: 16GB or more
  • Storage: 50GB free space
  • GPU: NVIDIA GPU with CUDA support (for advanced features)
  • Processor: Multi-core processor (4+ cores recommended)

Installation Steps​

1. Install ROS 2 Humble Hawksbill​

First, add the ROS 2 repository to your system:

# Add the ROS 2 GPG key
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y curl gnupg lsb-release
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg

# Add the repository to your sources list
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $(source /etc/os-release && echo $UBUNTU_CODENAME) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null

# Update package list and install ROS 2
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ros-humble-desktop

2. Install Additional ROS 2 Packages​

sudo apt install ros-humble-gazebo-ros-pkgs ros-humble-gazebo-dev
sudo apt install ros-humble-navigation2 ros-humble-nav2-bringup
sudo apt install ros-humble-rosbridge-suite

3. Set up ROS 2 Environment​

Add the following to your ~/.bashrc:

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash

Then source the environment:

source ~/.bashrc

4. Install NVIDIA Isaac Sim (Optional)​

For advanced perception and simulation capabilities:

  1. Visit the NVIDIA Developer website to download Isaac Sim
  2. Follow the installation instructions for your system
  3. Ensure your NVIDIA GPU drivers are up to date

5. Install Docusaurus Dependencies​

npm install

6. Start the Documentation Server​

npm start

Verification​

To verify your setup:

  1. Open a new terminal and run:
ros2 topic list

This should show available ROS 2 topics without errors.

  1. Verify Gazebo installation:
gazebo --version
  1. Test ROS 2 with a simple publisher/subscriber example (covered in the ROS 2 module).

Next Steps​

Once your environment is set up, proceed to the ROS 2: The Robotic Nervous System module to begin learning about the fundamental concepts that form the backbone of robotic systems.