Kinesis RB-CAR ROS 1 Workspace

This repository is the onboarding workspace for Kinesis CTP users working with the Robotnik RB-CAR in ROS 1 Noetic.

It provides:

• a ROS 1 Noetic Docker environment for Ubuntu 24.04 and newer hosts;
• .repos manifests for the Kinesis RB-CAR forks;
• a standard catkin workspace layout;
• a repeatable local test flow for roscore, RViz, and RB-CAR packages.

Repository Layout

.
├── containers/ros1_noetic/     # Docker-based ROS 1 Noetic dev environment
├── rbcar_kinesis_https.repos   # read-only/simple clone manifest
├── rbcar_kinesis_ssh.repos     # contributor manifest for Kinesis members
├── scripts/                    # workspace helper scripts
└── src/                        # ROS packages imported by vcs

The RB-CAR source packages live in separate Kinesis forks:

• KinesisCTP/rbcar_common
• KinesisCTP/rbcar_sim
• KinesisCTP/robotnik_msgs
• KinesisCTP/robotnik_sensors

Robotnik's original repositories should remain as upstream references for vendor updates.

Prerequisites

Install Docker Engine and make sure it works without sudo:

docker run hello-world

If Docker was just installed and your user was added to the docker group, open a new terminal or run:

newgrp docker

For GUI tools such as RViz, use a Linux desktop session with X11 available. The container launcher passes through X11 and /dev/dri for OpenGL.

Quick Start

Clone this umbrella workspace:

git clone https://github.com/KinesisCTP/rb-car.git ~/rb-car_ws
cd ~/rb-car_ws

Start the ROS 1 Noetic container:

./containers/ros1_noetic/run.sh

Inside the container, import the RB-CAR source packages:

vcs import src < rbcar_kinesis_https.repos

Install missing ROS package dependencies, then build:

rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

Local RViz Test

Use this when testing without a physical robot.

Terminal 1:

cd ~/rb-car_ws
./containers/ros1_noetic/run.sh
roscore

Terminal 2:

cd ~/rb-car_ws
./containers/ros1_noetic/enter.sh
rviz

If RViz opens but rendering is broken:

LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 rviz

Working With a Real RB-CAR

Copy the environment template:

cd ~/rb-car_ws/containers/ros1_noetic
cp .env.example .env

Edit .env so ROS_MASTER_URI points at the robot and ROS_IP is your workstation's IP address on the robot network:

ROS_MASTER_URI=http://<robot-ip>:11311
ROS_IP=<your-workstation-ip>

Find your workstation IP with:

ip -4 addr show

Do not leave ROS_IP set to a placeholder or stale network address. If roscore reports that it cannot contact its own server, check:

echo "$ROS_MASTER_URI"
echo "$ROS_IP"
ping "$ROS_IP"

Contributor Setup

Users with write access to the Kinesis organization should configure GitHub SSH access, then import using the SSH manifest:

vcs import src < rbcar_kinesis_ssh.repos

If packages were initially imported with HTTPS, switch their origin remotes to SSH:

./scripts/use_ssh_remotes.sh

Recommended remote layout inside each source repo:

origin   -> git@github.com:KinesisCTP/<repo>.git
upstream -> git@github.com:RobotnikAutomation/<repo>.git

Use feature branches for changes:

cd src/rbcar_common
git switch -c feature/my-change

Updating From Robotnik Upstream

For each package repo, keep Robotnik as upstream:

git remote add upstream git@github.com:RobotnikAutomation/<repo>.git
git fetch upstream

Then merge or rebase upstream changes intentionally into the Kinesis branch.

Useful Checks

Inside the container:

whoami
echo "$ROS_DISTRO"
xeyes
glxinfo -B
rospack profile
catkin_make