Perception-Playground

This repo is set up as a ROS 2 colcon workspace (packages live in src/).

• roverarm - Rover arm assembly setup with ROS Jazzy and MoveIt.
• sam_bot_tutorial - Completed tutorial branch following the sam_bot ROS 2 navigation example (see below).

Tutorial Quick start (recommended: VS Code devcontainer)

This repo ships with a VS Code devcontainer that uses a prebuilt Docker image (lichunho00/perception_playground) with ROS 2 Jazzy + Nav2 already installed. A lightweight desktop is exposed locally via VNC/noVNC so you can run GUI tools (RViz/Gazebo) without host-side ROS setup.

1. Install Docker Desktop + VS Code + the “Dev Containers” extension.
2. Open this repo in VS Code.
3. Run: “Dev Containers: Reopen in Container”.
4. Once the container finishes starting, open the GUI (choose one):
   • Browser (noVNC): http://localhost:6080/vnc.html
   • TigerVNC: install TigerVNC Viewer (https://tigervnc.org/), then connect to localhost:5901 (no password)

Note: the devcontainer uses .devcontainer/.env for optional environment overrides; it will be auto-created from .devcontainer/.env.example if missing.

The VNC server is started automatically by the devcontainer (postStartCommand), but you can also run it manually inside the container:

start-vnc.sh

Run the Nav2 Turtlebot3 simulation

In the container terminal:

export ROS_DISTRO=${ROS_DISTRO:-jazzy}
source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
ros2 launch nav2_bringup tb3_simulation_launch.py headless:=False

If Nav2 does not autostart, click the “Startup” button in RViz.

After you’re in the devcontainer, verify Nav2 is available:

source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
ros2 pkg list | grep -E '^nav2_|^navigation2$'

Troubleshooting

• If http://localhost:6080/vnc.html doesn’t load, check VS Code’s “Ports” panel and ensure 6080 is forwarded.
• If a native VNC client can’t connect, ensure port 5901 is forwarded, then connect to localhost:5901.
• If you stop the VNC services inside the container, restart them with start-vnc.sh.

Repo layout

• src/perception_playground/: minimal ROS 2 package placeholder
• scripts/: helper scripts for rosdep + colcon
• .devcontainer/: devcontainer config (prebuilt image + VNC/noVNC)

Open model in gazebo sim

cd /workspace/HMS_Perception/worlds#
gz sim rubicon.sdf