Environment Setup for Go1 with ROS

Overview

This page describes how to setup environment to simulate and control Go1 with ROS. The following contents are included.

• Launch Docker
• Prepare catkin workspace
• Install ROS packages

Environment

• unitree_legged_sdk v3.5.1 (v3.8.0)
• unitree_ros_to_real v3.5.0
• unitree_ros (version is not specified. installed on June 29, 2022)
  Since unitree_* repositories seem not to be well synchronized, you may need to add some modifications if you use newer versions.

Procedure

Run docker

docker run -p 6080:80 --shm-size=512m --name ros_go1 -d tiryoh/ros-desktop-vnc:melodic 

Then, access to

http://127.0.0.1:6080

with your browser.

---

Preparation of catkin workspace

Launch terminal in the browser, and make catkin workspace directory.

mkdir -p catkin_ws/src
cd catkin_ws

You can use catkin build instead of catkin_make by installing the following package.

sudo apt install python-catkin-tools

or

sudo apt install python3-catkin-tools

for ROS noetic.

Then, initialize it with

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin init

Make sure that run this command in catkin_ws directory.

---

Installation of packages

You need to install several packages and libraries to run the ROS simulator.

• unitree_legged_sdk
  • Boost (version 1.5.4 or higher)
  • CMake (version 2.8.3 or higher)
  • LCM (version 1.4.0 or higher)
  • g++ (version 8.3.0 or higher)
• unitree_ros_to_real
• unitree_ros

---

unitree_legged_sdk

Boost

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libboost-dev

CMake

LCM

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/lcm-proj/lcm.git
cd lcm
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

g++

You can check the version of g++ with

g++ --version

If it is lower than the requirement, install higher versions.
(You don't need all of them.)

sudo apt install build-essential
sudo apt -y install g++-7 g++-8 g++-9
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-7 7
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-8 8
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-9 9
g++ --version

---

unitree_legged_sdk

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/unitreerobotics/unitree_legged_sdk.git
cd unitree_legged_sdk
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

unitree_ros_to_real

cd ~/catkin_ws/src/
git clone https://github.com/unitreerobotics/unitree_ros_to_real.git
catkin build unitree_legged_msgs unitree_legged_real
cd ../
source devel/setup.bash

Since the original path for unitree_legged_sdk is not set correctly, you need to modify unitree_ros_to_real/unitree_legged_real/CMakeLists.txt as follows:

unitree_ros_to_real/unitree_legged_real/CMakeLists.txt

+ set(LEGGED_SDK_DIR "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/../../unitree_legged_sdk")

include_directories(
    include
    ${catkin_INCLUDE_DIRS}
-   ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/unitree_legged_sdk-master/include
+   ${LEGGED_SDK_DIR}/include
)

- link_directories(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/unitree_legged_sdk-master/lib)
+ link_directories(${LEGGED_SDK_DIR}/lib)

If you are working on v3.8.0 of unitree_legged_sdk, change the file as follows:

unitree_ros_to_real/unitree_legged_real/CMakeLists.txt

- set(LEGGED_SDK_NAME -pthread libunitree_legged_sdk_${ARCH}.so lcm)
+ set(LEGGED_SDK_NAME -pthread libunitree_legged_sdk.so lcm)

set(EXTRA_LIBS ${LEGGED_SDK_NAME} lcm)

set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-03 0fPIC")

+ set(LEGGED_SDK_DIR "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/../../unitree_legged_sdk")

include_directories(
    include
    ${catkin_INCLUDE_DIRS}
-   ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/unitree_legged_sdk-master/include
+   ${LEGGED_SDK_DIR}/include
)

- link_directories(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/unitree_legged_sdk-master/lib)
+ link_directories(${LEGGED_SDK_DIR}/lib/cpp/${ARCH})

If you use python, replace cpp with python.

Note that unitree_legged_real is not required for the simulation, and so you can skip its compiling if not necessary.

---

unitree_ros

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/unitreerobotics/unitree_ros.git

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install ros-melodic-controller-interface  ros-melodic-gazebo-ros-control ros-melodic-joint-state-controller ros-melodic-effort-controllers ros-melodic-joint-trajectory-controller

Then, modify the last line in unitree_ros/unitree_gazebo/worlds/stairs.world

unitree_ros/unitree_gazebo/worlds/stairs.world

<include>
- <uri>model:///home/unitree/catkin_ws/src/unitree_ros/unitree_gazebo/worlds/building_editor_models/stairs</uri>
+ <uri>model:///home/ubuntu/catkin_ws/src/unitree_ros/unitree_gazebo/worlds/building_editor_models/stairs</uri>
</include>

Finally, build packages.

catkin build
source devel/setup.bash

You may get an error message indicating unitree_joint_control_tool cannot be included.
In that case, try to modify the last line in unitree_ros/unitree_legged_control/CMakeLists.txt to specify another one formatted as elf64-littleaarch64 instead of the default one, lib/libunitree_joint_control_tool.so, whose file format is elf64-little as:

unitree_ros/unitree_legged_control/CMakeLists.txt

- target_link_libraries(unitree_legged_control ${catkin_LIBRARIES} unitree_joint_control_tool)
+ target_link_libraries(unitree_legged_control ${catkin_LIBRARIES} unitree_joint_control_tool_arm64)

You may get errors saying eeForce does not exist when compiling unitree_ros/unitree_controller/src/servo.cpp.
In that case, comment out the lines including "eeForce" since it is obsolete for unitree_ros_msgs. (02.06.2022)