Simulation

The simulator allows the user to test the robot without the need for a physical robot. It has all of the same functionality as the real robot. The TurtleBot 4 can be simulated using Gazebo (previously known as Ignition Gazebo). Unlike Gazebo Classic, Gazebo does not natively support ROS. Instead, it has its own transport stack with a similar topic and node implementation. To communicate with ROS, we can use the ros_ign_bridge. This ROS node translates data from ROS to Ignition, and vice versa.

Installing Gazebo

  • Requirements:

    • Ubuntu 20.04
    • ROS 2 Galactic

  • Requirements:

    • Ubuntu 22.04
    • ROS 2 Humble

  • Requirements:

    • Ubuntu 24.04
    • ROS 2 Jazzy

Recommended:

  • PC with dedicated GPU

Follow the installation instructions described here.

Launching Gazebo

For a full tutorial using Gazebo, see the Navigation tutorial

  • Warning

    ROS 2 Galactic is no longer supported. Please consider upgrading to a newer release

    The ignition.launch.py launch file has several launch configurations that allow the user to customize the simulation.

    Default TurtleBot 4 launch:

    ros2 launch turtlebot4_ignition_bringup ignition.launch.py

    Ignition Gazebo will launch and spawn the TurtleBot 4 in the default world along with all of the necessary nodes.

    Ignition Gazebo
    TurtleBot 4 in Ignition Gazebo

    TurtleBot 4 Lite launch:

    ros2 launch turtlebot4_ignition_bringup ignition.launch.py model:=lite
    Ignition Gazebo Lite
    TurtleBot 4 Lite in Ignition Gazebo

  • The turtlebot4_ignition.launch.py launch file has several launch configurations that allow the user to customize the simulation.

    Default TurtleBot 4 launch:

    ros2 launch turtlebot4_ignition_bringup turtlebot4_ignition.launch.py

    Ignition Gazebo will launch and spawn the TurtleBot 4 in the default world along with all of the necessary nodes.

    Ignition Gazebo
    TurtleBot 4 in Ignition Gazebo

    TurtleBot 4 Lite launch:

    ros2 launch turtlebot4_ignition_bringup turtlebot4_ignition.launch.py model:=lite
    Ignition Gazebo Lite
    TurtleBot 4 Lite in Ignition Gazebo

  • The turtlebot4_gz.launch.py launch file has several launch configurations that allow the user to customize the simulation.

    Default TurtleBot 4 launch:

    ros2 launch turtlebot4_gz_bringup turtlebot4_gz.launch.py

    Gazebo will launch and spawn the TurtleBot 4 in the default world along with all of the necessary nodes.

    Gazebo
    TurtleBot 4 in Gazebo

    TurtleBot 4 Lite launch:

    ros2 launch turtlebot4_gz_bringup turtlebot4_gz.launch.py model:=lite
    Gazebo Lite
    TurtleBot 4 Lite in Gazebo