Startup

Startup#

There are two ways for teams to develop a solution for this year’s ARIAC competition:

  • Docker

  • Local

Docker#

Running the competition through Docker ensures all ARIAC dependencies are preloaded into the image. This makes setup easier and can lead to fewer potential issues. However, there can be a steep learning curve if your team is not familiar with Docker. The final evaluation will require teams to submit a Dockerfile for their solution, so this is the recommended approach.

Installation#

Attention

Running ARIAC through Docker requires a Linux operating system

  1. Install prerequisites

    Note

    After installing Docker Engine, follow the post-installation instructions.

    Note

    The toolkit is only necessary if you have an NVIDIA graphics card.

    After installation, run the following command:

    sudo nvidia-ctk runtime configure --runtime=docker

  2. Pull the ARIAC image from Docker Hub

    docker pull nistariac/ariac2025:latest

  3. Clone the example team repository

    git clone https://github.com/usnistgov/ariac_example_team.git ~/ariac_example_team

cd ~/ariac_example_team

  4. Start the container with Docker Compose

    If you have an NVIDIA graphics card:

    docker compose up ariac_nvidia

    Otherwise:

    docker compose up ariac

    Warning

    Running the competition without a dedicated GPU will lead to worse performance.

Note

This terminal must be kept open while ARIAC is running or use -d to run the container in detached mode.

Launching the Environment#

  1. Open a new terminal in the container

    docker exec -it example_team bash

  2. Launch the environment

    ros2 launch ariac_gz ariac.launch.py user_config:=/team_ws/src/example_team/config/example_team_config.yaml trial_config:=/team_ws/src/example_team/config/trials/LHAF9835.yaml

Starting the App#

  1. Open a new terminal in the container

    docker exec -it example_team bash

  2. Start the app

    ros2 run ariac_app app

    Note

    You should see a message that looks like this:

    NiceGUI ready to go on http://localhost:8080, and http://x.x.x.x:8080

  3. Open the app in your browser

    To open the app, ctrl+click on either of the links in the terminal or click here.

  4. Run the demos

    See the demos page for instructions on how to run the demos.

Local#

The competition can still be run without using Docker by directly installing and building the ARIAC source code on your machine. This may lead to more issues depending on how your computer is configured.

Attention

Running ARIAC locally requires Ubuntu 24.04.

Note

These instructions are written for Bash. If you are using a shell other than Bash, the source commands will be different. For example, the command for Zsh is:

source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.zsh

Installation#

  1. Install prerequisites

    Important

    The step for “Install development tools (optional)” is required.

  2. Create a workspace

    mkdir -p ~/ariac_ws/src && cd ~/ariac_ws

  3. Clone ARIAC and the example team

    git clone https://github.com/usnistgov/ARIAC.git src/ARIAC
git clone https://github.com/usnistgov/ariac_example_team.git src/ariac_example_team

  4. Rosdep

    Initialize rosdep

    source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
sudo rosdep init

    Update rosdep

    rosdep update

    Install ARIAC dependencies

    rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

  5. Pip dependencies

    Install necessary Python packages for the app:

    sudo apt install python3-pip
pip install -r src/ARIAC/ariac_app/requirements.txt --break-system-packages

  6. Build the workspace

    First, ROS must be sourced using this command:

    source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash

    After sourcing ROS, the workspace can be built using this command:

    colcon build

Launching the Environment#

  1. Navigate to the workspace and source packages

    cd ~/ariac_ws
source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
source install/setup.bash

  2. Launch the environment

    ros2 launch ariac_gz ariac.launch.py trial_config:=src/ariac_example_team/example_team/config/trials/LHAF9835.yaml user_config:=src/ariac_example_team/example_team/config/example_team_config.yaml

Starting the App#

  1. Navigate to the workspace and source packages

    cd ~/ariac_ws
source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
source install/setup.bash

  2. Start the app

    ros2 run ariac_app app

    Note

    You should see a message that looks like this:

    NiceGUI ready to go on http://localhost:8080, and http://x.x.x.x:8080

  3. Open the app in your browser

    To open the app, ctrl+click on either of the links in the terminal or click here.

  4. Run the demos

    See the demos page for instructions on how to run the demos.

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