Virtual Machine Installation Instructions

ROS 2 Dashing and Gazebo

Overview

This page lists installation instructions for the virtual machine that is a supplement to Robotics System Toolbox™ and ROS Toolbox™. You can use MATLAB® and Simulink® to work with the Gazebo robot simulator and an external ROS (Robot Operating System) and ROS 2 network. Ubuntu® Bionic 18.04 virtual machine works on multiple platforms (Windows®, Mac, and Linux®) and contains the following:

Supported platforms include 64-bit Windows, 64-bit Linux, and 64-bit Mac OS X. The installation instructions are listed by your host platform. Platform-Specific Installation Instructions

Platform-Specific Installation Instructions

Windows (64-bit)

  • Navigate to broadcom.com.
  • In the upper right corner, click on 'Support Portal'.
  • Either log in by clicking 'Go To Portal' or 'Register' for a basic Broadcom account.
  • Once logged in, look for the ‘Software’ dropdown menu. From there, select the VMware Cloud Foundation division and click on 'My Downloads'.
  • Select VMware Workstation and choose the required version.
  • Download and install the VMware Player.
  • Download the archive containing the virtual machine.
  • Decompress the archive to a location on your hard drive.
  • Start VMware Player.
  • In VMware Player, press Open a Virtual Machine.
  • Browse to the location of the Ubuntu image, select the ros_melodic_dashing_gazebov9.vmx file and press OK.
  • The virtual machine is now added to your library.
  • In VMware Player, start the virtual machine.
  • Press I copied it if a window opens that asks if you copied or moved the virtual machine.

Linux (64-bit)

  • Navigate to broadcom.com.
  • In the upper right corner, click on 'Support Portal'.
  • Either log in by clicking 'Go To Portal' or 'Register' for a basic Broadcom account.
  • Once logged in, look for the ‘Software’ dropdown menu. From there, select the VMware Cloud Foundation division and click on 'My Downloads'.
  • Select VMware Workstation and choose the required version.
  • Install VMware Player by executing the bundle installer with administrative privileges.
  • Download the archive containing the virtual machine.
  • Decompress the archive to a location on your hard drive.
  • Start VMware Player.
  • In VMware Player, press Open a Virtual Machine.
  • Browse to the location of the Ubuntu image, select ros_melodic_dashing_gazebov9.vmx file and press OK.
  • The virtual machine is now added to your library.
  • In VMware Player, start the virtual machine.
  • Press I copied it if a window opens that asks if you copied or moved the virtual machine.

Mac OS X (64-bit)

This platform uses VirtualBox® to run the virtual machine because VMware Player is not available for the Mac. If you have a valid license for VMware Fusion®, you can follow the installation instructions for Windows instead.

  • Download and install VirtualBox® for OS X hosts (license).
  • Download the virtual machine to a folder on your hard drive.
  • Start VirtualBox.
  • In VirtualBox, select the Import Appliance entry in the File menu.
  • Select the file you just downloaded and press Next.
  • Verify the virtual machine settings and press Import. The import process might take a few minutes.
  • The virtual machine is now added to your library.
  • In VirtualBox, start the virtual machine.
  • Depending on your host's network configuration, you might have to adjust the network settings of the virtual machine. If on first start, the virtual machine displays a warning that a network interface was not found, press Change Network Settings and select the Name of your host's primary network adapter.

Using the Virtual Machine

Please refer to ROS Toolbox examples and Robotics System Toolbox examples and to see how this virtual machine can be used.

Troubleshooting­

  • In order to run the virtual machine, your processor's virtualization extensions have to be enabled in the BIOS (see this article for more information).
  • By default, the virtual machine uses 2 CPU cores and allocates a maximum of 2,048 MB of RAM. If your computer does not support these default settings, you have to modify the virtual machine ­­­settings before starting it.
  • To enable ROS communication between MATLAB and the virtual machine, you might have to disable your firewall or antivirus software. ROS arbitrarily assigns port numbers to nodes, so depending on your firewall configuration, communication between nodes might be blocked.