isaac_ros_nvblox#

Source code available on GitHub.

A meta-package containing the relevant nvblox ROS 2 packages.

Quickstart#

Set Up Development Environment#

  1. Set up your development environment by following the instructions in getting started.

  2. (Optional) Install dependencies for any sensors you want to use by following the sensor-specific guides.

    Note

    We strongly recommend installing all sensor dependencies before starting any quickstarts. Some sensor dependencies require restarting the development environment during installation, which will interrupt the quickstart process.

Download Quickstart Assets#

Download quickstart data from NGC:

Make sure required libraries are installed.

sudo apt-get install -y curl jq tar

Then, run these commands to download the asset from NGC:

NGC_ORG="nvidia"
NGC_TEAM="isaac"
PACKAGE_NAME="isaac_ros_nvblox"
NGC_RESOURCE="isaac_ros_nvblox_assets"
NGC_FILENAME="quickstart.tar.gz"
MAJOR_VERSION=4
MINOR_VERSION=3
VERSION_REQ_URL="https://catalog.ngc.nvidia.com/api/resources/versions?orgName=$NGC_ORG&teamName=$NGC_TEAM&name=$NGC_RESOURCE&isPublic=true&pageNumber=0&pageSize=100&sortOrder=CREATED_DATE_DESC"
AVAILABLE_VERSIONS=$(curl -s \
    -H "Accept: application/json" "$VERSION_REQ_URL")
LATEST_VERSION_ID=$(echo $AVAILABLE_VERSIONS | jq -r "
    .recipeVersions[]
    | .versionId as \$v
    | \$v | select(test(\"^\\\\d+\\\\.\\\\d+\\\\.\\\\d+$\"))
    | split(\".\") | {major: .[0]|tonumber, minor: .[1]|tonumber, patch: .[2]|tonumber}
    | select(.major == $MAJOR_VERSION and .minor <= $MINOR_VERSION)
    | \$v
    " | sort -V | tail -n 1
)
if [ -z "$LATEST_VERSION_ID" ]; then
    echo "No corresponding version found for Isaac ROS $MAJOR_VERSION.$MINOR_VERSION"
    echo "Found versions:"
    echo $AVAILABLE_VERSIONS | jq -r '.recipeVersions[].versionId'
else
    mkdir -p ${ISAAC_ROS_WS}/isaac_ros_assets && \
    FILE_REQ_URL="https://api.ngc.nvidia.com/v2/resources/$NGC_ORG/$NGC_TEAM/$NGC_RESOURCE/\
versions/$LATEST_VERSION_ID/files/$NGC_FILENAME" && \
    curl -LO --request GET "${FILE_REQ_URL}" && \
    tar -xf ${NGC_FILENAME} -C ${ISAAC_ROS_WS}/isaac_ros_assets && \
    rm ${NGC_FILENAME}
fi

Set Up isaac_ros_nvblox#

There are two options for installing nvblox: installation from Debian, and installation from source.

  1. Activate the Isaac ROS environment:

    isaac-ros activate

  2. Install isaac_ros_nvblox and its dependencies.

    sudo apt-get update

    sudo apt update &&
sudo apt-get install -y ros-jazzy-isaac-ros-nvblox

  3. Install rviz for examples using visualization. Can be omitted if examples are launched with run_rviz:=False.

    sudo apt-get install -y ros-jazzy-rviz2
source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash

  4. Install nav2 for examples using navigation. Can be omitted if examples are launched with navigation:=False.

    sudo apt-get install -y ros-jazzy-nav2-bringup

Run Example Launch File#

Run the example with:

ros2 launch nvblox_examples_bringup isaac_sim_example.launch.py \
rosbag:=${ISAAC_ROS_WS}/isaac_ros_assets/isaac_ros_nvblox/quickstart \
navigation:=False

Verify that you see the robot reconstructing a mesh, with the 2d ESDF slice overlaid on top.

https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/NVIDIA-ISAAC-ROS/.github/release-4.3/resources/isaac_ros_docs/repositories_and_packages/isaac_ros_nvblox/basic_example_rviz.png/

Try More Examples#

To continue your exploration, check out the following suggested nvblox examples:

Launch file

Description

isaac_sim_example.launch.py

Example to run with Isaac Sim (tutorial)

realsense_example.launch.py

Example to run with RealSense cameras (tutorial)

zed_example.launch.py

Example to run with a ZED camera (tutorial)

API#

Troubleshooting#