Gazebo

Quadruped Simulation and Control

System Requirements

Component	Minimum	Good/Recommended	Ideal
CPU	Intel i7 (10th gen) or AMD Ryzen 7-8 cores minimum	Intel i9 (12th gen+) or AMD Ryzen 9-12 cores	AMD Ryzen 9 7950X or Intel i9-13900K 16+ cores (24+ threads)
RAM	16 GB	32 GB	64 GB
GPU	NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB VRAM	NVIDIA RTX 3070 or RTX 4060 Ti 8-12 GB VRAM	NVIDIA RTX 4080/4090 16+ GB VRAM with CUDA 11.8+
OS	Ubuntu 22.04	Ubuntu 22.04	Ubuntu 22.04

It's ideal to have at least 128 GB SSD storage for the setup to run smoothly.

Checkout the video walkthrough here. More video tutorials coming soon.

Simulation Instructions

To get started with Gazebo and Unitree SDK, please install cyclonedds and ROS2 Humble first.

Install cyclonedds from this link or follow the instructions below.

sudo apt-get install git cmake gcc

git clone https://github.com/eclipse-cyclonedds/cyclonedds -b releases/0.10.x
cd cyclonedds && mkdir build install && cd build
cmake -DBUILD_EXAMPLES=ON -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/Documents/GitHub/cyclonedds/install ..
cmake --build . --target install

To install ROS2 Humble, go to this link. Follow the steps under Setup Sources. Now, run

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install ros-humble-desktop-full

This will install ROS, RViz, Gazebo and all the relevant packages.

To install compilers and other tools to build ROS packages, run

sudo apt install ros-dev-tools

Install the following additional dependencies

sudo apt install ros-humble-rmw-cyclonedds-cpp
sudo apt install ros-humble-rosidl-generator-dds-idl

Set up your environment by sourcing the following file.

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash

If you don't have uv installed, use the following command to install it on your system.

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Use this CycloneDDS configuration. It uses lo as the network interface. We recommend that you export this in your .bashrc or equivalent configuration file cyclonedds.xml. To add it to cyclonedds.xml:

cd cyclonedds
vi cyclonedds.xml

Add the following, then save and exit.

<CycloneDDS>
    <Domain>
        <General>
            <Interfaces>
                <NetworkInterface address="127.0.0.1" priority="default" multicast="default" />
            </Interfaces>
        </General>
        <Discovery>
            <MaxAutoParticipantIndex>200</MaxAutoParticipantIndex>
        </Discovery>
    </Domain>
</CycloneDDS>

Open your bashrc file

vi ~/.bashrc

Add the following, replacing /path/to/cyclonedds with the actual path to your CycloneDDS installation:

export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_cyclonedds_cpp
export CYCLONEDDS_URI=/path/to/cyclonedds/cyclonedds.xml

Apply the changes

source ~/.bashrc

To add the config to your bashrc, run:

vim ~/.bashrc

And add the following, replacing /path/to/cyclonedds with the actual path to your CycloneDDS installation:

export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_cyclonedds_cpp
export CYCLONEDDS_URI='
<CycloneDDS>
    <Domain>
        <General>
            <Interfaces>
                <NetworkInterface address="127.0.0.1" priority="default" multicast="default" />
            </Interfaces>
        </General>
        <Discovery>
            <MaxAutoParticipantIndex>200</MaxAutoParticipantIndex>
        </Discovery>
    </Domain>
</CycloneDDS>'

Now run

source ~/.bashrc

This will apply the latest changes in the current shell session.

Check if you have rosdep installed by running rosdep or rosdep --version. If it is not installed, run the following:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3-rosdep

Once you've successfully completed above steps, follow the following steps to start the gazebo simulation, generate SLAM map of the surrounding and start navigation.

Step 1: Clone the OM1-ros2-sdk repository:

git clone https://github.com/OpenMind/OM1-ros2-sdk.git

Step 2: Install all the necessary dependencies:

cd OM1-ros2-sdk
uv venv --python 3.10
sudo rosdep init
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths . --ignore-src -r -y
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install .

Step 3: Build all the packages:

colcon build

Now you should be able to launch the Gazebo Simulator.

Step 4: Open a terminal and run the following commands. You'll now be able to see the Gazebo and RViZ windows launch on your system.

source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch go2_gazebo_sim go2_launch.py

Step 5: Open a new terminal and run:

source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch go2_sdk sensor_launch.py use_sim:=true

This will bring up the om/path topic, enabling OM1 to understand the surrounding environment.

Step 6: Open a new terminal and run:

export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:$(pwd)/.venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages
source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch orchestrator orchestrator_launch.py use_sim:=true

This will bring up the orchestrator, to consume data collected by om1_sensor for SLAM and Navigation.

Step 7: Run Zenoh Ros2 Bridge

To run the Zenoh bridge for the Unitree Go2, you need to have the Zenoh ROS 2 bridge installed. You can find the installation instructions in the Zenoh ROS 2 Bridge documentation

After installing the Zenoh ROS 2 bridge, you can run it with the following command:

zenoh-bridge-ros2dds -c ./zenoh/zenoh_bridge_config.json5

Step 8: Start OM1

Refer to the Installation Guide for detailed instructions.

Then add the optional Python CycloneDDS module to OM1, run

uv pip install -r pyproject.toml --extra dds

Setup your API key in .bashrc file and run your simulation agent:

Get your API key from the portal, and add it to bashrc

vi ~/.bashrc

export OM_API_KEY="<your_api_key>"

Now, run the simulation agent

uv run src/run.py simulation

Step 9: Teleoperate the robot in simulation

You can also use teleoperation to control the robot through your keyboard.

Switch back to OM1-ros2-sdk in a new terminal and run the following commands

source install/setup.bash
ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard

Use the keyboard controls displayed in the terminal to move the robot:

i - Move forward
, - Move backward
j - Turn left
l - Turn right
k - Stop
U/O/M/> - Move diagonally

Note: We don't have auto charging feature supported with Gazebo but it will be launched soon. Stay tuned!