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OpenRMF Installation (Ubuntu 24.04 and ROS2 Jazzy)

This document provides step-by-step instructions for installing OpenRMF on a system running Ubuntu 24.04 with ROS 2 Jazzy.

Step 1: Install ROS2 Jazzy

  • OpenRMF is built on top of ROS 2, so ROS 2 must be installed first.
  • The required ROS 2 distribution depends on the Ubuntu version you are using (in this case Jazzy, which is for Ubuntu 24.04)
  • Follow the instructioners in the (ROS2 installation guide)
  • Make sure that you add the source commands to your .bashrc file so they are automatically applied in every new terminal session. Also verify that the talker and listener test programs run without any issues.

Step 2: Install prerequisite software for OpenRMF

  • This section covers installation using Debian/Ubuntu binary packages.
  • OpenRMF can also be installed from source, but source installation is not covered in this document.

Step 2a): Enable system python

  • OpenRMF may not install correctly when using isolated Python environments such as Conda. It is recommended to use the system Python (python3) instead.
  • If Conda is enabled, deactivate it before proceeding:
conda deactivate

Step 2b) Install ROS2 development tools

  • Install the required ROS 2 development utilities using apt:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install ros-dev-tools -y

Step 2c) Install Gazebo Harmonic

  • Gazebo is a 3D simulation tool that can be used with OpenRMF. On Ubuntu 24.04, the supported version is Gazebo Harmonic, which can be installed as follows.

  • First, install the required dependencies:

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install curl lsb-release gnupg

  • Then install Gazeob Harmonic 

    sudo curl https://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo.gpg --output /usr/share/keyrings/pkgs-osrf-archive-keyring.gpg

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/pkgs-osrf-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo/ubuntu-stable $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gazebo-stable.list > /dev/null

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gz-harmonic

  • For more details on Gazebo Harmonic installation, refer to the official documentation:Gazebo Instllation Reference on Ubuntu 24.04

Step 2d) Install non-ROS dependencies of Open-RMF packages

  • In addition to Gazebo, Open-RMF requires several non-ROS dependencies.

  • Install them using the following commands:

sudo apt update && \
sudo apt upgrade -y && \
sudo apt install -y \
    python3-fastapi \
    python3-requests \
    python3-shapely \
    python3-socketio \
    python3-yaml \
    ros-jazzy-ros-gz-bridge \
    gz-harmonic

Step 3: Install build tools

Step 3a): Setup rosdep

  • rosdep is used to install system dependencies for ROS packages across different distributions. It is typically installed with ros-dev-tools, but must be initialized and updated before use.
sudo rosdep init # run if first time using rosdep.
rosdep update

Step 3b): Setup colcon mixin

  • colcon is the ROS 2 build tool used for managing and building workspaces, similar in concept to make.

  • The following commands add and update the default mixin repository:

colcon mixin add default https://raw.githubusercontent.com/colcon/colcon-mixin-repository/master/index.yaml
colcon mixin update default

Step 4: Install Core OpenRMF

  • Install the core OpenRMF packages for ROS 2 Jazzy using apt:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ros-jazzy-rmf-dev

Step 5: Build rmf_demos from source

  • Next, build and install rmf_demos from source.
  • To run demos and additional tooling, clone the required RMF repositories as shown below.
mkdir -p ~/rmf_ws/src
cd ~/rmf_ws/src

# Clone RMF repositories
git clone -b jazzy https://github.com/open-rmf/rmf_visualization.git
git clone -b jazzy https://github.com/open-rmf/rmf_visualization_msgs.git
git clone -b jazzy https://github.com/open-rmf/menge_vendor.git
git clone -b jazzy https://github.com/open-rmf/nlohmann_json_schema_validator_vendor.git

# Already included in your notes
git clone -b jazzy https://github.com/open-rmf/rmf_utils.git
git clone -b jazzy https://github.com/open-rmf/rmf_ros2.git
git clone -b jazzy https://github.com/open-rmf/rmf_simulation.git
git clone -b jazzy https://github.com/open-rmf/rmf_traffic.git
git clone -b jazzy https://github.com/open-rmf/rmf_traffic_editor.git
git clone -b jazzy https://github.com/open-rmf/rmf_demos.git

cd ~/rmf_ws
colcon build

# Optional: use symlink install symbolic links (avoid duplicating files in the install folder)
# colcon build --symlink-install

Step 6: Source the system

  • Source ROS 2 and OpenRMF in your .bashrc file so they are automatically loaded in every new terminal:
source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
source ~/rmf_ws/install/setup.bash

Step 7: Verify installation

  • Open two terminal in Ubuntu, and type following commands
Terminal 1 Terminal 2
ros2 launch rmf_demos_gz office.launch.xml ros2 run rmf_demos_tasks dispatch_patrol -p coe lounge -n 3 --use_sim_time

OpenRMF Installaion with Jazzy- external link

OpenRMF Installaion with Kilted- external link