Create ROS Workspace¶
In this exercise, we will create and build an empty ROS workspace.
Motivation¶
Any ROS project begins with making a workspace. In this workspace, you will put all the things related to this particular project. In this module we will create the workspace where we will build the components of our Scan-N-Plan application.
Reference Example¶
Steps to creating a workspace: Creating a Workspace
Further Information and Resources¶
Additional details on what a ROS environment consists of and some basic checks you can run: Configuring a ROS2 Environment
Scan-N-Plan Application: Problem Statement¶
We have a good installation of ROS, and we need to take the first step to setting up our particular application. Your goal is to create a workspace for your application and its supplements.
Scan-N-Plan Application: Guidance¶
Create a Workspace¶
Close any open terminal windows. Open a new terminal and source the “foxy” distribution.
source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.bash
Create the root workspace directory. Note that the required structure is a top-level directory and a
src/
directory one level down. The directory name is a completely free choice. We will useros2_ws
throughout these tutorials.cd ~/ mkdir --parents ros2_ws/src cd ros2_ws ls
Build the workspace from the workspace root-directory (
ros2_ws
).colcon build ls
- See that the
ros2_ws
directory now contains additional directories (build, install, log). colcon build
must always be run from the root of your workspace directory.- Don’t run
colcon build
from a terminal where you’ve also sourced this workspace’s setup file. Use a dedicated terminal for building.
- See that the
These new directories can be safely deleted at any time. This is sometimes used to resolve unusual build errors by “starting with a clean slate”. Note that colcon never changes any files in the
src
directory. Re-runcolcon build
to re-create the build/install/log directories.rm -r build/ install/ log/ ls colcon build ls
Make the contents of this workspace visible to ROS. Source the setup file in the install directory.
source ~/ros2_ws/install/setup.bash
- This file MUST be sourced for every new terminal.
- This file will automatically include the ROS environment that was active when you first built this workspace. Make sure you have sourced the correct ROS distribution before building a new workspace for the first time!