Running a sample application with ROS 2 Foxy and Gazebo 11 - AWS RoboMaker
Creating a base imageCreating an Image for the Robot ApplicationCreating an image for the simulation applicationRunning the application and pushing it to Amazon ECR

End of support notice: On September 10, 2025, AWS will discontinue support for AWS RoboMaker. After September 10, 2025, you will no longer be able to access the AWS RoboMaker console or AWS RoboMaker resources. For more information on transitioning to AWS Batch to help run containerized simulations, visit this blog post.

Running a sample application with ROS 2 Foxy and Gazebo 11

The following tutorial shows you how to use container images to develop with ROS 2 Foxy and Gazebo 11, by creating and running the Hello World robot application and simulation application. You can get the sample application to work by running the commands described in this document.

For this tutorial, we create and use three container images. The following shows the directory structure that we use for this example application.

├── HelloWorldSampleAppROS2FoxyGazebo11 // Base Image
│   └── Dockerfile
├── HelloWorldSampleAppROS2FoxyGazebo11RobotApp // Image for Robot App
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── robot-entrypoint.sh
├── HelloWorldSampleAppROS2FoxyGazebo11SimApp // Image for Simulation App
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── simulation-entrypoint.sh

Each Dockerfile has the instructions needed to build each image;

  • The Dockerfile for the base image has the commands to set up ROS and Gazebo.

  • The Dockerfile for the robot application has the commands to set up the Hello World robot application.

  • The Dockerfile for the simulation application has the commands to set up the Hello World simulation application.

Both the robot application and the simulation application have an entrypoint script. These scripts source the environments for their respective applications. They set up the path for you to run commands to start your robot and simulation applications.

Creating a base image

To create a base image, you save the commands to create your environment in a Dockerfile. You then build the Dockerfile.

  • Save the following commands in a Dockerfile.

    # Copyright Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT-0
FROM ros:foxy

ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive

RUN apt-get clean
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    lsb  \
    unzip \
    wget \
    curl \
    sudo \
    python3-vcstool \
    python3-rosinstall \
    python3-colcon-common-extensions \
    ros-foxy-rviz2 \
    ros-foxy-rqt \
    ros-foxy-rqt-common-plugins \
    devilspie \
    xfce4-terminal

RUN wget https://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -; \
    sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo/ubuntu-stable `lsb_release -cs` main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gazebo-stable.list'
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y gazebo11

ENV QT_X11_NO_MITSHM=1

ARG USERNAME=robomaker
RUN groupadd $USERNAME
RUN useradd -ms /bin/bash -g $USERNAME $USERNAME
RUN sh -c 'echo "$USERNAME ALL=(root) NOPASSWD:ALL" >> /etc/sudoers'
USER $USERNAME

RUN sh -c 'cd /home/$USERNAME'

# Download and build our Robot and Simulation application
RUN sh -c 'mkdir -p /home/robomaker/workspace'
RUN sh -c 'cd /home/robomaker/workspace && wget https://github.com/aws-robotics/aws-robomaker-sample-application-helloworld/archive/3527834.zip && unzip 3527834.zip && mv aws-robomaker-sample-application-helloworld-3527834771373beff0ed3630c13479567db4149e aws-robomaker-sample-application-helloworld-ros2'
RUN sh -c 'cd /home/robomaker/workspace/aws-robomaker-sample-application-helloworld-ros2'

RUN sudo rosdep fix-permissions
RUN rosdep update

After you've created the Dockerfile, build it using the following commands on your terminal.

cd ../HelloWorldSampleAppROS2FoxyGazebo11
docker build -t helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11:latest .

Building the base image installs ROS 2 Foxy and Gazebo 11. You need both libraries installed to successfully run your applications.

Creating an Image for the Robot Application

After you've created the base image, you can create the image for your robot application. You save the following script in a Dockerfile and build it. This script downloads the Hello World robot application and sets it up.

# Copyright Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT-0
FROM helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11:latest

# Build the Robot application
RUN cd /home/robomaker/workspace/aws-robomaker-sample-application-helloworld-ros2/robot_ws && \
 /bin/bash -c "source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.bash && vcs import < .rosinstall && rosdep install --rosdistro foxy --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y && colcon build"


COPY robot-entrypoint.sh /home/robomaker/robot-entrypoint.sh
RUN sh -c 'sudo chmod +x /home/robomaker/robot-entrypoint.sh'
RUN sh -c 'sudo chown robomaker:robomaker /home/robomaker/robot-entrypoint.sh'

CMD ros2 launch hello_world_robot rotate.launch.py
ENTRYPOINT [ "/home/robomaker/robot-entrypoint.sh" ]

The following command creates the image for the robot application from the Dockerfile.

cd HelloWorldSampleAppROS2FoxyGazebo11RobotApp/HelloWorldSampleAppROS2FoxyGazebo11RobotApp
docker build -t helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11robotapp:latest .

The following are the contents of the script that you can save as robot-entrypoint.sh. This script sources the environment for the robot application.

#!/bin/bash

if [ ! -z $GAZEBO_MASTER_URI ]; then
        tmp_GAZEBO_MASTER_URI=$GAZEBO_MASTER_URI
fi

cd /home/robomaker/workspace/aws-robomaker-sample-application-helloworld-ros2/robot_ws
source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.bash
source /usr/share/gazebo-11/setup.sh
source ./install/setup.sh

if [ ! -z $tmp_GAZEBO_MASTER_URI ]; then
        export GAZEBO_MASTER_URI=$tmp_GAZEBO_MASTER_URI
        unset tmp_GAZEBO_MASTER_URI
fi

printenv

exec "${@:1}"

Creating an image for the simulation application

After you've created the base image and the image for the robot application, you can create the image for your simulation application. You save the following script in a Dockerfile and build it. This script downloads the Hello World robot application and sets it up.

# Copyright Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT-0
FROM helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11:latest

# Build the Simulation application
RUN cd /home/robomaker/workspace/aws-robomaker-sample-application-helloworld-ros2/simulation_ws && \
 /bin/bash -c "source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.bash && vcs import < .rosinstall && rosdep install --rosdistro foxy --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y && colcon build"
 
 
COPY simulation-entrypoint.sh /home/robomaker/simulation-entrypoint.sh

RUN sh -c 'sudo chmod +x /home/robomaker/simulation-entrypoint.sh'
RUN sh -c 'sudo chown robomaker:robomaker /home/robomaker/simulation-entrypoint.sh'

CMD ros2 launch hello_world_simulation empty_world.launch.py
ENTRYPOINT [ "/home/robomaker/simulation-entrypoint.sh" ]

The following command creates the image.

cd HelloWorldSampleAppROS2FoxyGazebo11SimApp/HelloWorldSampleAppROS2FoxyGazebo11SimApp 
docker build -t helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11simapp:latest .

The following are the contents of the script that you can save as simulation-entrypoint.sh. This script sources the environment for the simulation application.

#!/bin/bash

if [ ! -z $GAZEBO_MASTER_URI ]; then
        tmp_GAZEBO_MASTER_URI=$GAZEBO_MASTER_URI
fi

cd /home/robomaker/workspace/aws-robomaker-sample-application-helloworld-ros2/simulation_ws
source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.bash
source /usr/share/gazebo-11/setup.sh
source ./install/setup.sh

if [ ! -z $tmp_GAZEBO_MASTER_URI ]; then
        export GAZEBO_MASTER_URI=$tmp_GAZEBO_MASTER_URI
        unset tmp_GAZEBO_MASTER_URI
fi

printenv

exec "${@:1}"

Running the application and pushing it to Amazon ECR

After you've created your images, make sure that they run properly in your local Linux environment. After you've checked that your image runs, you can push your Docker image to Amazon ECR and create a simulation job.

The following commands give you the ability to run the Hello World application in your local Linux environment.

docker run -it -e DISPLAY -v /tmp/.X11-unix/:/tmp/.X11-unix/ --name robot_app \
-u robomaker -e ROBOMAKER_GAZEBO_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:5555 \
-e ROBOMAKER_ROS_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:11311 \
helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11robotapp:latest                   
                
docker run -it -e DISPLAY -v /tmp/.X11-unix/:/tmp/.X11-unix/ --name sim_app \
-u robomaker -e ROBOMAKER_GAZEBO_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:5555 \
-e ROBOMAKER_ROS_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:11311 \
helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11simapp:latest

When you run the robot application and simulation application containers, you can visualize the simulation using the Gazebo GUI tool. Use the following commands to:

  1. Connect to your container running the simulation application.

  2. Visualize your application by running the Gazebo Graphical User Interface (GUI).

# Enable access to X server to launch Gazebo from docker container
$ xhost +

# Check that the robot_app and sim_app containers are running. The command should list both containers
$ docker container ls

# Connect to the sim app container
$ docker exec -it sim_app bash

# Launch Gazebo from within the container
$ /home/robomaker/simulation-entrypoint.sh ros2 launch gazebo_ros gzclient.launch.py

You can add tags to your images. The following commands give you the ability to tag your images.

docker tag helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11robotapp:latest accountID.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11robotapp:latest
              
docker tag helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11simapp:latest accountID.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11simapp:latest

After you've verified that the application is working properly, you can push to Amazon ECR using the following commands.

aws ecr get-login-password --region us-west-2 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin accountID.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com
docker push accountID.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11robotapp:latest 
docker push accountID.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/helloworldsampleappros2foxygazebo11simapp:latest

You can then run a simulation job on the image. For more information about simulation jobs, see Simulation with AWS RoboMaker.