Setting up your Workstation

What is a Workstation?

A workstation is a computer (desktop, laptop, or virtual machine) set up to connect and interact with our robots. It runs the same operating system as the robot, allowing you to:

  • Monitor ROS 2 topics and system status.

  • Visualize sensor data and robot perception (e.g. using RViz).

  • Send commands to the robot.

  • Offload heavy data processing to more powerful hardware.

  • Run tools such as rqt_plot for PID tuning or image_view for camera streams.

  • Launch simulations (Magni Robot Simulation).

In short, the workstation is your main interface for programming, debugging, and testing robotic applications.

Requirements for a Workstation

To work with our robots, a ROS 2-compatible workstation is required. We recommend:

  • Operating System: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

  • ROS 2 Distribution: Jazzy (officially supported)

Other ROS 2 versions may work with adjustments, but only Jazzy is guaranteed to function out of the box with our robots.

Setting up the Desktop Workstation

Note

This section assumes that you are already following the Requirements for a Workstation section.

We will not cover how to install Ubuntu 24.04 itself, since there are many good guides available. Instead, here are some usefull resources:

Once Ubuntu 24.04 is installed and configured, you can proceed with setting up ROS 2 Jazzy. We recommend following the official ROS 2 installation guide:

This will walk you through the step-by-step installation process.

Setting up a Virtual Machine

Note

A guide for running a virtual machine setup will be provided soon.

Testing the connection

Note

This section assumes that you already have Ubuntu 24.04 and ROS 2 Jazzy installed on your workstation.

Testing Ubuntu Installation

To check your Ubuntu version, run:

lsb_release -a

You should see output confirming you are running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Something like this:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:     Ubuntu
Description:        Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
Release:    24.04
Codename:   noble

Testing ROS 2 Instalation

To verify ROS 2 is installed correctly and check its version, run:

which ros2

You should see something like:

/opt/ros/jazzy/bin/ros2

Testing Connection to the Robot

Note

This section assumes you have already received your robot. If you are still waiting, you can skip this section until your robot arrives.

Once Ubuntu and ROS 2 are confirmed working, you can test the connection to your robot. First, follow the connection guide: Connecting to the Robot.

After connecting, list the active ROS 2 topics:

ros2 topic list

You should see something like this:

/action_info
/battery_state
/buzz
/camera/image_raw/compressed
/client_count
/cmd_vel
/connected_clients
/continue_clicked
/curr_route
/curve

Note

The actual list of topics may be much longer than the examples shown here. The goal is simply to confirm that your workstation is correctly connected to the robot and able to see ROS 2 topics.

If you see a list of topics, your workstation is successfully connected and ready to use.

Next Steps

Now that your workstation is set up, you can continue in one of two ways:

  • If you are still waiting for your robot, try out the Magni Robot Simulation to get familiar with the system.

  • If you already have a robot, follow the guide Connecting to the Robot to connect to the robot and start driving it.