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Mavros Installation

Raffaele Rossi

ROS (1) with MAVROS Installation Guide

:::warning The PX4 development team recommend that all users upgrade to ROS 2. This documentation reflects the "old approach". :::

This documentation explains how to set up communication between the PX4 Autopilot and a ROS 1 enabled companion computer using MAVROS.

MAVROS is a ROS 1 package that enables MAVLink extendable communication between computers running ROS 1 for any MAVLink enabled autopilot, ground station, or peripheral. MAVROS is the "official" supported bridge between ROS 1 and the MAVLink protocol.

First we install PX4 and ROS, and then MAVROS.

Install ROS and PX4

This section explains how to install ROS 1 with PX4. ROS 1 full desktop builds come with Gazebo Classic, so normally you will not install the simulator dependencies yourself!

:::tip These instructions are a simplified version of the official installation guide. They cover the ROS Melodic and Noetic releases. :::

:::: tabs

::: tab ROS Noetic (Ubuntu 22.04)

If you're working with ROS Noetic on Ubuntu 20.04:

  1. Install PX4 without the simulator toolchain:

  2. Download PX4 Source Code:

    sh git clone https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot.git --recursive

  3. Run the ubuntu.sh the --no-sim-tools (and optionally --no-nuttx):

    sh bash ./PX4-Autopilot/Tools/setup/ubuntu.sh --no-sim-tools --no-nuttx

    • Acknowledge any prompts as the script progress.

  4. Restart the computer on completion.

  5. You may need to install the following additional dependencies:

sh sudo apt-get install protobuf-compiler libeigen3-dev libopencv-dev -y

  1. Follow the Noetic Installation instructions (ros-noetic-desktop-full is recommended).

:::

::: tab ROS Melodic (Ubuntu 18.04)

If you're working with ROS "Melodic on Ubuntu 18.04:

  1. Download the ubuntu_sim_ros_melodic.sh script in a bash shell:

sh wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PX4/Devguide/master/build_scripts/ubuntu_sim_ros_melodic.sh

  1. Run the script:

sh bash ubuntu_sim_ros_melodic.sh

You may need to acknowledge some prompts as the script progresses.

::: tip You don't need to install MAVROS (as shown below), as this is included by the script

Also note: - ROS Melodic is installed with Gazebo (Classic) 9 by default. - Your catkin (ROS build system) workspace is created at ~/catkin_ws/. - The script uses instructions from the ROS Wiki "Melodic" Ubuntu page. :::

::::

Install MAVROS

Then MAVROS can be installed either from source or binary. We recommend that developers use the source installation.

Binary Installation (Debian / Ubuntu)

The ROS repository has binary packages for Ubuntu x86, amd64 (x86_64) and armhf (ARMv7). Kinetic also supports Debian Jessie amd64 and arm64 (ARMv8).

Use apt-get for installation, where ${ROS_DISTRO} below should resolve to kinetic or noetic, depending on your version of ROS:

sh sudo apt-get install ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-mavros ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-mavros-extras ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-mavros-msgs

Then install GeographicLib datasets by running the install_geographiclib_datasets.sh script:

sh wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mavlink/mavros/master/mavros/scripts/install_geographiclib_datasets.sh sudo bash ./install_geographiclib_datasets.sh

Source Installation

This installation assumes you have a catkin workspace located at ~/catkin_ws If you don't create one with:

sh mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src cd ~/catkin_ws catkin init wstool init src

You will be using the ROS Python tools: wstool (for retrieving sources), rosinstall, and catkin_tools (building) for this installation. While they may have been installed during your installation of ROS you can also install them with:

sh sudo apt-get install python-catkin-tools python-rosinstall-generator -y

:::tip While the package can be built using catkin_make the preferred method is using catkin_tools as it is a more versatile and "friendly" build tool. :::

If this is your first time using wstool you will need to initialize your source space with:

sh $ wstool init ~/catkin_ws/src

Now you are ready to do the build:

  1. Install MAVLink:

sh # We use the Kinetic reference for all ROS distros as it's not distro-specific and up to date rosinstall_generator --rosdistro kinetic mavlink | tee /tmp/mavros.rosinstall

  1. Install MAVROS from source using either released or latest version:

  2. Released/stable

    sh rosinstall_generator --upstream mavros | tee -a /tmp/mavros.rosinstall

  3. Latest source

    sh rosinstall_generator --upstream-development mavros | tee -a /tmp/mavros.rosinstall

    sh # For fetching all the dependencies into your catkin_ws, # just add '--deps' to the above scripts, E.g.: # rosinstall_generator --upstream mavros --deps | tee -a /tmp/mavros.rosinstall

  4. Create workspace & deps

sh wstool merge -t src /tmp/mavros.rosinstall wstool update -t src -j4 rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -y

  1. Install GeographicLib datasets:

sh ./src/mavros/mavros/scripts/install_geographiclib_datasets.sh

  1. Build source

sh catkin build

  1. Make sure that you use setup.bash or setup.zsh from workspace.

sh #Needed or rosrun can't find nodes from this workspace. source devel/setup.bash

In the case of error, there are addition installation and troubleshooting notes in the mavros repo.

MAVROS Examples

The MAVROS Offboard Example (C++), will show you the basics of MAVROS, from reading telemetry, checking the drone state, changing flight modes and controlling the drone.

::: info If you have an example app using the PX4 Autopilot and MAVROS, we can help you get it on our docs. :::

See Also

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