ROS2 Basics, Setup, and Installation on Ubuntu OS — TurtleBot

A Turtlebot (source: https://www.turtlebot.com/)

If you’re just getting started with ROS2 (Robot Operating System 2), this guide will walk you through the basics of setting it up on Ubuntu 24.04. ROS2 is an open-source framework that helps developers build robotic applications using a flexible system of nodes that communicate with each other. In this post, we’ll cover everything from setting up a virtual machine with Ubuntu, installing useful tools like Terminator, getting ROS2 Jazzy running, and trying out some classic examples like the talker/listener demo and turtlesim. By the end, you’ll have a working ROS2 environment where you can experiment with both C++ and Python nodes

1. Download UTM (or any other virtual machine app, depending on your os)

**https://mac.getutm.app/**

2. Download Ubuntu 24.04.03 Desktop via Terminal curl -LO https:**//cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/24.04.3/release/ubuntu-24.04.3-desktop-arm64.iso**

3. Install Terminator on Ubuntu (Highly suggested because we will always use multiple terminals at once)

sudo apt install terminator

4. Install ROS2 Jazzy https://docs.ros.org/en/jazzy/Installation/Ubuntu-Install-Debs.html#setup-environment

5. Run a simple example: talker/listener In one terminal, source the setup file and then run a C++ talker : source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bashros2

run demo_nodes_cpp talker

In another terminal, source the setup file and then run a Python listener :

source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bashros2

run demo_nodes_py listener

You should see the talker saying that it is Publishing messages, and the listener saying I heard those messages. This verifies that both the C++ and Python APIs are working properly.

6. Run turtlesim https://docs.ros.org/en/jazzy/Tutorials/Beginner-CLI-Tools/Introducing- Turtlesim/Introducing-Turtlesim.html