ROS + Gazebo Sim

This package contains things that make it convenient to integrate ROS with Gazebo, such as:

• Launch files
• ROS-enabled executables

Run Gazebo Sim

There's a convenient launch file, try for example:

ros2 launch ros_gz_sim gz_sim.launch.py gz_args:="shapes.sdf"

Spawn entities

The create executable can be used to spawn SDF or URDF entities from:

• A file on disk or from Gazebo Fuel
• A ROS parameter

For example, start Gazebo Sim:

ros2 launch ros_gz_sim gz_sim.launch.py

then spawn a model:

ros2 run ros_gz_sim create -world default -file 'https://fuel.ignitionrobotics.org/1.0/openrobotics/models/Gazebo'

See more options with:

ros2 run ros_gz_sim create --helpshort

Using <gazebo_ros> to export model paths in package.xml

The <gazebo_ros> tag inside the <export> tag of a package.xml file can be used to add paths to GZ_SIM_RESOURCE_PATH and GZ_SIM_SYSTEM_PLUGIN_PATH, which are environment variables used to configure Gazebo search paths for resources (e.g. SDFormat files, meshes, etc) and plugins respectively.

The values in the attributes gazebo_model_path and gazebo_media_path are appended to GZ_SIM_RESOURCE_PATH. The value of plugin_path is appended to GZ_SIM_SYSTEM_PLUGIN_PATH. See the Finding resources tutorial to learn more about these environment variables.

The keyword ${prefix} can be used when setting these values and it will be expanded to the package's share path (i.e., the value of ros2 pkg prefix --share <package name>)

<export>
   <gazebo_ros gazebo_model_path="${prefix}/models"/>
   <gazebo_ros gazebo_media_path="${prefix}/media"/>
   <gazebo_ros plugin_path="${prefix}/plugins"/>
</export>

Thus the required directory needs to be installed from CMakeLists.txt

install(DIRECTORY models
    DESTINATION share/${PROJECT_NAME})

In order to reference the models in a ROS package unambiguously, it is recommended to set the value of gazebo_model_path to be the parent of the prefix.

<export>
   <gazebo_ros gazebo_model_path="${prefix}/../"/>
</export>

Consider an example where we have a ROS package called my_awesome_pkg and it contains an SDFormat model cool cool_robot:

my_awesome_pkg
├── models
│   └── cool_robot
│       ├── model.config
│       └── model.sdf
└── package.xml

With gazebo_model_path="${prefix}/../ set up, we can reference the cool_robot model in a world file using the package name in the uri:

<sdf version="1.6">
  <world name="default">
    <include>
      <uri>package://my_awesome_pkg/models/cool_robot</uri>
    </include>
  </world>
</sdf>

However, if we set gazebo_model_path=${prefix}/models, we would need to reference cool_robot as package://cool_robot, which might have a name conflict with other models in the system.

Changelog for package ros_gz_sim

0.244.14 (2024-04-08)

• Support [<gazebo_ros>]{.title-ref} in [package.xml]{.title-ref} exports (#492) This copies the implementation from [gazebo_ros_paths.py]{.title-ref} to provide a way for packages to set resource paths from [package.xml]{.title-ref}. ` e.g. <export> <gazebo_ros gazebo_model_path="${prefix}/models"/> <gazebo_ros gazebo_media_path="${prefix}/models"/> </export>[ The value of `gazebo_model_path]{.title-ref} and [gazebo_media_path]{.title-ref} is appended to [GZ_SIM_RESOURCE_PATH]{.title-ref} The value of [plugin_path]{.title-ref} appended to [GZ_SIM_SYSTEM_PLUGIN_PATH]{.title-ref} ---------
• Contributors: Addisu Z. Taddese

0.244.13 (2024-01-23)

0.244.12 (2023-12-13)

• Add support for Harmonic/Humble pairing (#462)
• Set on_exit_shutdown argument for gz-sim ExecuteProcess (#355) (#451)
• Contributors: Addisu Z. Taddese, Michael Carroll

0.244.11 (2023-05-23)

0.244.10 (2023-05-03)

0.244.9 (2022-11-03)

• Export ROS Stopwatch library (#299) (#322) New Stopwatch library needs to be exported and built as shared Co-authored-by: Michael Anderson <anderson@mbari.org>
• Contributors: Michael Carroll

0.244.8 (2022-10-28)

0.244.7 (2022-10-12)

• Fix launch substitutions for ign_args (#309)
  • Fix launch substitutions for ign_args
• Merge pull request #275 (Galactic to Humble) Galactic to Humble
• Merge branch \'ros2\' into ports/galactic_to_ros2
• Contributors: Michael Carroll

0.244.6 (2022-09-14)

0.244.5 (2022-09-12)

• Fix missing msgs include and packages.xml deps (#292)
  • Fix missing msgs include and packages.xml deps
  • Add additional conditions to support gz sim invocation
  • Fix cpplint
• Support ros_ign migration (#282) Clean up shared libraries, and tick-tock RosGzPointCloud Tick-tock launch args Hard-tock ign_ in sources Migrate ign, ign_, IGN_ for sources, launch, and test files Migrate IGN_XXX_VER, IGN_T, header guards Migrate launchfile, launchfile args, and test source references Migrate ros_ign_XXX and gz_gazebo -> gz_sim Migrate ros_ign_XXX project names Migrate Ign, ign-, IGN_DEPS, ign-gazebo Migrate ignitionrobotics, ignitionrobotics/ros_ign, osrf/ros_ign Migrate ignition-version, IGNITION_VERSION, Ignition <LIB>, ros_ign_ci
• Move packages and files to gz (#282)
• Contributors: methylDragon

0.244.3 (2022-05-19)

• [ros2] README updates (service bridge, Gazebo rename) (#252)
• Fix linter tests (#251) Co-authored-by: Louise Poubel <louise@openrobotics.org>
• Contributors: Daisuke Nishimatsu, Louise Poubel

0.244.2 (2022-04-25)

• Support bridging services (#211)
• Add std_msgs as dependency of ros_gz_sim (#242)
• Fixed ros_gz_sim launch file install directory (#229) (#230)
• Added ign_version launch argument to set ignition gazebo version (#226)
• Bring ros2 branch up-to-date with Rolling (#213)
• create.cpp usage message fixed for ros2 branch (#207)
• Separate galactic branch from ros2 branch (#201)