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Building the Evaluation Component from Source

This guide is for advanced users who want to build the Evaluation Component locally on Ubuntu 24.04 instead of using the provided Docker container.

Note

For most users, we recommend using the pre-built aic_eval Docker container as described in the Getting Started guide. The container provides a consistent, tested environment that matches the official evaluation setup.

Why Build from Source?

Building locally may be useful if you:

  • Want to modify or debug the evaluation component
  • Prefer native development without containers
  • Need to integrate with other tools on your host system

Important

Changes to the Evaluation Component will not be reflected in the official evaluation. Only your Participant Model (submitted as a container) will be evaluated.

Prerequisites

Dependency Release / Distro
Operating System Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numbat)
ROS 2 ROS 2 Kilted Kaiju

Setup Instructions

If your system currently has ROS 2 Kilted and Gazebo binaries installed, you must remove them before starting the source installation. This is necessary because building specific repositories from source while pre-installed binaries exist can cause environment conflicts.

To purge the relevant binaries, run the following command:

sudo apt purge ros-kilted-ros2-control* ros-kilted-control* ros-kilted-kinematics* ros-kilted-joint-state-publisher ros-kilted-realtime-tools ros-kilted-gz*

1. Add Gazebo Repository

sudo curl https://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo.gpg --output /usr/share/keyrings/pkgs-osrf-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/pkgs-osrf-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo/ubuntu-stable $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gazebo-stable.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

2. Clone and Build Workspace

# Create workspace
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
mkdir -p ~/ws_aic/src
cd ~/ws_aic/src

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/intrinsic-dev/aic

# Import dependencies
vcs import . < aic/aic.repos --recursive

# Install Gazebo dependencies
sudo apt -y install $(sort -u $(find . -iname 'packages-'`lsb_release -cs`'.apt' -o -iname 'packages.apt' | grep -v '/\.git/') | sed '/gz\|sdf/d' | tr '\n' ' ')

# Install ROS 2 dependencies
cd ~/ws_aic
sudo rosdep init  # Only if running rosdep for the first time
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro kilted -yr --skip-keys "gz-cmake3 DART libogre-dev libogre-next-2.3-dev rosetta"

# Install rmw_zenoh_cpp middleware and additional dependencies
sudo apt install -y ros-kilted-rmw-zenoh-cpp python3-pynput

# Build the workspace
source /opt/ros/kilted/setup.bash
GZ_BUILD_FROM_SOURCE=1 colcon build --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release --merge-install --symlink-install --packages-ignore lerobot_robot_aic

3. Configure Environment

Add these environment variables to your shell configuration (e.g., ~/.bashrc):

export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_zenoh_cpp
export ZENOH_CONFIG_OVERRIDE='transport/shared_memory/enabled=true;transport/shared_memory/transport_optimization/pool_size=536870912'

Then reload your shell configuration:

source ~/.bashrc

Note

This challenge uses rmw_zenoh as the ROS 2 middleware. You must set the RMW_IMPLEMENTATION environment variable to rmw_zenoh_cpp in all terminals.

Running the System

You'll need three terminals. In each terminal, source the workspace:

source ~/ws_aic/install/setup.bash

Tip

If you didn't add the environment variables to ~/.bashrc in step 3, you'll need to export them in each terminal:

export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_zenoh_cpp
export ZENOH_CONFIG_OVERRIDE='transport/shared_memory/enabled=true;transport/shared_memory/transport_optimization/pool_size=536870912'

Then run the following commands in their respective terminals:

Terminal 1 - Start Zenoh Router

ros2 run rmw_zenoh_cpp rmw_zenohd

Terminal 2 - Launch Evaluation Environment

ros2 launch aic_bringup aic_gz_bringup.launch.py ground_truth:=false start_aic_engine:=true

This launches Gazebo with the robot arm and end-of-arm tooling. The TaskBoard and Cable will be spawned by aic_engine when your model is ready.

Terminal 3 - Run Your Policy

ros2 run aic_model aic_model --ros-args -p use_sim_time:=true -p policy:=aic_example_policies.ros.WaveArm

Replace aic_example_policies.ros.WaveArm with your policy implementation.

Next Steps

Now that you have the evaluation environment running locally:

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

  1. Build Errors: Ensure all dependencies are installed correctly
  2. Runtime Issues: Verify environment variables are set in all terminals
  3. ROS 2 Communication: Check that Zenoh router is running and middleware is configured

For more help, see Troubleshooting or report issues on GitHub.