Installing EXOTica

Prerequisites

For all installations:

  • Ubuntu 16.04 with ROS Kinetic, Ubuntu 18.04 with ROS Melodic, or Ubuntu 20.04 with ROS Noetic.

  • catkin_tools (catkin_make is no longer supported)

  • rosdep

  • ROS (ros-[release]-desktop is recommended but more minimal versions work in conjunction with rosdep)

Installation from binaries

We regularly release EXOTica for ROS Kinetic, Melodic, and Noetic. You can install EXOTica from binary via

sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-exotica ros-$ROS_DISTRO-exotica-examples

Installation from source

Clean installation:

  1. Create a catkin workspace or use an existing workspace. catkin_tools is the preferred build system.

  2. Clone this repository into the src/ subdirectory of the workspace (any subdirectory below src/ will do): git clone git@github.com:ipab-slmc/exotica.git.

  3. cd into the the cloned directory.

  4. Install dependencies

  1. If running rosdep for the first time start by running: sudo rosdep init

  2. rosdep update ; rosdep install --from-paths ./ -iy

  1. Compile the code catkin build.

  2. Source the config file (ideally inside ~/.bashrc): source path_to_workspace/devel/setup.bash. You may have to source the config file from your installspace if your workspace is configured for installation.

Demos

Have a look at the exotica_examples package. If you have sourced the workspace correctly you should be able to run any of the demos, e.g.:

roslaunch exotica_examples cpp_ik_minimal.launch
roslaunch exotica_examples cpp_core.launch
roslaunch exotica_examples cpp_aico.launch
roslaunch exotica_examples python_ompl.launch
roslaunch exotica_examples python_attach.launch
roslaunch exotica_examples python_collision_distance.launch
roslaunch exotica_examples python_sphere_collision.launch