Docker Container Instructions for Telerobotics

Author:Siddhant Shrivastava

Change Record

25th May, 2015 - Document created.

Introduction

From the Docker website -

Docker is an open platform for building, shipping and running distributed applications. It gives programmers, development teams and operations engineers the common toolbox they need to take advantage of the distributed and networked nature of modern applications.

The Telerobotics Docker Image is a Ubuntu 14.04 image configured with Robot Operating System (ROS) packages, Tango-Controls, and Gazebo models to use Telerobotics out-of-the-box. ERAS is also provided as part of the image.

Docker Installation

Install Docker for your Platform by following instructions from this site

Setting up the Telerobotics Image

Pull the sidcode/ros-eras image the Docker Hub by running the following command -

docker pull sidcode/ros-eras

Note that a high-speed Internet connection is required as the image is around 4 GB in size.

Using the Telerobotics Image

Most of the features of the image can be harnessed using the following command -

docker run -i -t sidcode/ros-eras bash

In order to run Gtk-based applications, one needs to share the display with the host machine. To achieve this, start the image with the following command -

docker run -i -t -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix sidcode/ros-eras /bin/bash

This should provide access as a root user to the Telerobotics image.

Start the ssh-server which is to be used for ROS GUI applications -

./etc/init.d/ssh start

A Linux group called eras and a user called eras is configured in the image. The details are as follows -

Username - eras Password - eras

View the Network interface information by running ifconfig. The IPv4 Address corresponding to the eth0 interface is the one that is to be used to connect to the Docker image.

From the Physical machine, start a terminal and ssh to the Docker image as follows -

ssh -Y <docker-IP> -l eras

Now we are all set to use the Telerobotics Docker Image.

Follow the instructions in the rest of the manuals for the next steps.