MQTT-ROS

Table of Contents

• Installation of the Environment
• Docker-Compose Files

Installation of the Environment

An installation of Docker and Docker-Compose is required in order to build and start the environment.

For a basic test the docker-compose.yml image can be used. In order to start building the image, you can use:

docker-compose build

Before testing the image it is required to change the parameter MQTT_BROKER_ADDRESS for each of the containers it is used in. This parameter can be found in each of the Docker-Compose files. It has to match the IP address of the MQTT Broker. Optionally the name of the robot can be changed as well by modifying the parameter ROBOT_NAME. Make sure that the name will be the same for each component. In it's default state it requires an environment variable called ROBOT_NAME to be set, but this can be modified as well.

Additionally a MQTT Broker must be started beforehand. This repository includes an example broker, which uses EMQX. To start it, run:

docker-compose -f docker-compose-emqx-test.yml up

After it has been successfully built you can test it by using:

docker-compose up

This will start 7 different Docker containers. Those are the MQTT-ROS environment for one robot, called robot0 as well as an additional Turtlebot 3 Simulator.

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Docker-Compose Files

This repository includes a few different docker-compose files. Each of them have a different purpose and may also require specific environments to work, such as the case for the Turtlebot 3 images.

docker-compose.yml is the file that starts a robot instance with a Turtlebot 3 Simulator while also starting a server instance.

docker-compose-emqx-test.yaml is the file for the test MQTT Broker which starts an EMQX Broker.

docker-compose-server.yml starts only a server instance without any robot.

docker-compose-tb3.yml is used for the Turtlebot 3 itself and is required to run on a Turtlebot 3 as it is not a simulator.

docker-compose-turtlesim.yml is starting a robot and server instance with the ROS Turtlesim application. Before using it it is required to type xhost +local:root into the console, then go into the container with the ROS environment for the robot and run rosrun turtlesim turtlesim_node which will promptly start the GUI of the Turtlesim.

docker-compose-multiple.yml will start 2 different simulated environments while having one of them as a Turtlebot 3 Simulator while the other one does not start a simulated environment.

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