Windows build

Table of Contents

• Documentation
• Prerequisites
• System Recommendation
• Major installations
• Visual Studio
• Unreal Engine
• Clone & Build AGRARSENSE
• Installing Ubuntu WSL on Windows
• install some pip packages needed for testing
• install Fast-RTPS dependencies
• install Cyclone DDS dependencies
  • Using & testing AGRARSENSE
  • Visualizing sensor output with rviz
  • Creating packaged build
  • Modifying AGRARSENSE source
  • Keeping AGRARSENSE updated

Documentation

Topic	Link
Getting Started	Getting Started
Using the Simulator	Using the Simulator
Using Vehicles	Using Vehicles
Using Walkers	Using Walkers
Sensors	Sensors
Setupping sensors	Setupping sensor
Creating own levels	Creating own levels
Building from source on Linux	Building on Linux
Building from source on Windows	Building on Windows
Installing on Linux	Installing on Linux
Installing on Windows	Installing on Windows

Prerequisites

In this section, you will find essential information regarding the system requirements, software installations, and other dependencies necessary before starting the development of AGRARSENSE.

The project directory structure is as follows:

├── AGRARSENSE [root]
    └── Data (Created when simulator is launched)
        ├── All data saved from the Simulator
    └── Docs
        ├── All documentation files
    └── Examples
        └── ExampleJsonFiles
        └── ROS1
        └── ROS2
    └── Utils
        ├── Build scripts for Agrarsense unreal project
    └── Unreal
        └── Agrarsense [Unreal project files]
            └── Content
                ├── All blueprints, models and other assets
            └── Plugins
                ├── Plugins C++ source
            └── Source
                ├── Agrarsense simulator C++ source'
            ├── Compile.bat         - build script for compiling the project for Windows
            ├── OpenProject.bat     - build script for opening the project for Windows
            ├── CreatePackage.bat   - build script for creating packaged build for Windows
            ├── Update.bat          - Keep AGRARSENSE up to date

System Recommendation

• Intel i7 / Intel i9 9th or newer / AMD Ryzen 7 / AMD Ryzen 9
• 16+ GB RAM or more
• NVIDIA RTX 3070/3080 or newer / AMD RX 6700 XT or newer
• 150+ GB disk space for source version
• Ubuntu 20.04 / Windows 10 / Windows 11

Major installations

Visual Studio

Get the Visual Studio 2022 from here. Choose Community for the free version. If you own Visual Studio Professional licence then use that instead. Use the Visual Studio Installer to install following elements:

• __.NET dekstop Development. . In the Workloads section, choose __.NET dekstop Development__
• Universal Wndows Platform Development. . In the Workloads section, choose __Universal Wndows Platform Development
• Desktop development with C++. In the Workloads section, choose __Desktop development with C++
• Game development with C++. In the Workloads section, choose __Game development with C++

You also need .NET 6.0 SDK, this might already be installed or may come installed with Visual Studio but in case it's not, .NET 6.0 SDK can be downloaded from Microsoft website Windows x64 installer

Unreal Engine

While you can use Unreal Engine 5.3 from Epic Games launcher, we have made our own fork of the engine. We have made few optimizations to the engine to improve sensors performance.

Note. Compiling engine from source takes ~1-5 hours depending on your hardware. If are just testing the Simulator quickly, download Unreal Engine 5.3 from the Epic Games launcher to save time and skip to Part Two: Build AGRARSENSE

To install our fork of the engine, you need to have a GitHub account linked to Unreal Engine's account.

To build the modified version of Unreal Engine:

1. Clone the repository

git clone -b AGRARSENSE https://github.com/frostbitunreal/unrealengine C:\UnrealEngine

Note: If you clone the engine to other than C:\UnrealEngine, you need to modify Compile.bat, OpenProject.bat and Package.bat scripts because these scripts assume the engine is located in C:\UnrealEngine. If you are using Unreal Engine from Epic Games launcher then you don't need to do anything.

2. Navigate to cloned folder:

cd  C:\UnrealEngine

3. Run the configuration scripts::

Setup.bat && GenerateProjectFiles.bat

4. Compile the modified engine:

>1. Open the UE5.sln file inside the source folder with Visual Studio 2019.

>2. In the build bar ensure that you have selected 'Development Editor' and 'Win64' options.

>3. In the solution explorer, right-click UE5 and select Build.

---

Clone & Build AGRARSENSE

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://AMKFrostBit@dev.azure.com/AMKFrostBit/AGRARSENSE_Agile/_git/Agrarsense

2. Navigate to AGRARSENSE Unreal project folder (Command Prompt and File Explorer)

cd Agrarsense/Unreal/Agrarsense/

3. Generate Visual Studio project files

Right click Agrarsense.uproject file and click Generate Visual studio project files. Click yes to any prompts.

4. Build AGRARSENSE

To compile and open the Unreal Editor with one command. Requires Unreal Engine and Visual Studio 2022 to be installed.

OpenProject.bat

This .bat script can be started either by double clicking it or running it from command line.

Alternatively if you just want to compile the C++ source and plugins:

Compile.bat

Installing Ubuntu WSL on Windows

Ubuntu WSL is required for the project to be able to communicate between Unreal Engine and ROS.

AGRARSENSE Unreal project will work without a ROS installation but you cannot get or send any data to or from the simulator.

WSL can be installed either from the Microsoft Store (as of November 2022), or from the command line. If installing from the command line won't work, try installing from the Microsoft Store.

1. Install Ubuntu WSL by putting this command in command prompt.

   wsl --install -d Ubuntu-20.04

2. Launch Ubuntu WLS from start menu or with wsl command to command prompt

3. When WSL installation is ready, follow this guide to install ROS.

   sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
    
   sudo apt install curl
    
   curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.asc | sudo apt-key add -
    
   sudo apt update
    
   sudo apt install ros-noetic-desktop-full -y
    
   echo "source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
    
   source ~/.bashrc

4. Install ROSBridge

   https://github.com/code-iai/ROSIntegration states this: >The recommended way to install rosbridge is from source (requires the rosauth package) – Even though you could install rosbridge using apt, there have been numersous issues where these apt packages do not reflect the code in the ros1 branch. Hence, it is best to install from source.

   • Install from apt packages

     sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-rosauth
     sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-rosbridge-suite
     echo "alias ROS1='source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash'" >> ~/.bashrc

5. When launching ROS server, you can either launch it manually from Ubuntu WSL Terminal roslaunch rosbridge_server rosbridge_tcp.launch bson_only_mode:=True or in windows terminal wsl -e bash -lic "roslaunch rosbridge_server rosbridge_tcp.launch bson_only_mode:=True"

   To run python scripts with ROS connection you need to install Python ROS packages: ```sh sudo apt install python3-pip pip install –extra-index-url https://rospypi.github.io/simple/ rospy pip install –extra-index-url https://rospypi.github.io/simple/ tf2_ros ``` If connection doesn't go through from windows to Ubuntu WSL, you need to set **"ROS_IP"** in command prompt. ```sh set ROS_IP=192.168.x.x ```

6. When ROS is installed follow this guide to install ROS2 (Foxy). First, you need to install ROS2 without ros1_bridge.

   Launch new terminal ``` locale # check for UTF-8

   sudo apt update && sudo apt install locales sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8 sudo update-locale LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

   locale # verify settings sudo apt install software-properties-common sudo add-apt-repository universe sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl sudo curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo $UBUNTU_CODENAME) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y \ libbullet-dev \ python3-pip \ python3-pytest-cov \ ros-dev-tools

install some pip packages needed for testing

python3 -m pip install -U \ argcomplete \ flake8-blind-except \ flake8-builtins \ flake8-class-newline \ flake8-comprehensions \ flake8-deprecated \ flake8-docstrings \ flake8-import-order \ flake8-quotes \ pytest-repeat \ pytest-rerunfailures \ pytest

install Fast-RTPS dependencies

sudo apt install –no-install-recommends -y \ libasio-dev \ libtinyxml2-dev

install Cyclone DDS dependencies

sudo apt install –no-install-recommends -y \ libcunit1-dev mkdir -p ~/ros2_foxy/src cd ~/ros2_foxy vcs import –input https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros2/ros2/foxy/ros2.repos src sudo apt upgrade sudo rosdep init rosdep update rosdep install –from-paths src –ignore-src -y –skip-keys "fastcdr rti-connext-dds-5.3.1 urdfdom_headers" cd ~/ros2_foxy/ colcon build –symlink-install –packages-skip ros1_bridge

7. After ROS2 is build from source (without ros1_bridge)
   You need to 'source' both ROS1 and ROS2.

source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash source ~/ros2_foxy/install/setup.bash

Then build only ros1_bridge

cd ~/ros2_foxy/ colcon build –symlink-install –packages-select ros1_bridge –cmake-force-configure

>NOTE: To use ROS1 rosbridge_server, you shouldn't add both ROS1 and ROS2 to ~.bashrc, since it mixes the packages. Instead, use ROS1 as intended and source ROS2 `ONLY` when needed

echo "alias ROS2='source ~/ros2_foxy/install/setup.bash'" >> ~/.bashrc

   By typing ROS2 in terminal, it sources the ROS2 bash file and removes ROS2 alias
 
## Custom ROS Messages
 
1. Clone AGRARSENSE ROS messages
    ~~~
    cd ..
    git clone https://AMKFrostBit@dev.azure.com/AMKFrostBit/AGRARSENSE/_git/AGRARSENSE_ROS_Messages
    ~~~
 
2. Build ROS1 messages
    
    Type "ROS1" to launch ros2 build bash. (Alias made earlier in .bashrc)
    ~~~
    ROS1
    cd ~/AGRARSENSE_ROS_Messages/ros1ws/
    catkin_make
    ~~~
    
    when the ROS1 build is finished close the wsl windows
 
3. Open **New Terminal**
    
    Type "ROS2" to launch ros2 build bash. (Alias made earlier in .bashrc)
    ~~~
    ROS2
    cd ~/AGRARSENSE_ROS_Messages/ros2ws/
    colcon build
    ~~~
    
    - when the ROS2 build is finished close the wsl windows
 
4. Rebuild ROS1_Bridge again
    
    1. **Launch new Terminal**
    
    2. Source both ROS1 and ROS2 and both workspaces:
        ~~~
        ROS1 && ROS2
        source ~/AGRARSENSE_ROS_Messages/ros1ws/devel/setup.bash
        source ~/AGRARSENSE_ROS_Messages/ros2ws/install/setup.bash
        ~~~
    
    3. Next navigate to ros2_foxy directory and rebuild bridge
        ~~~
        cd ~/ros2_foxy/
        colcon build --packages-select ros1_bridge --cmake-force-configure
        ~~~
    
    4. After the bridge has successfully built
    
        ~~~
        echo "'source ~/AGRARSENSE_ROS_Messages/ros1ws/devel/setup.bash'" >> ~/.bashrc
        ~~~
 
 
You should now be able to launch the ROS1 bridge that Simulator uses to communicate with ROS1.
 
```sh
    sudo apt install python3-roslaunch
 
    ROS1 && roslaunch rosbridge_server rosbridge_tcp.launch bson_only_mode:=True

Using & testing AGRARSENSE

To test everything works correctly you can the following:

Note. On Windows steps 2 and 3 might be redundant as the Simulator will attempt to launch both ROS1 and ROS2 automatically but you can also start the ROS1 and ROS2 yourself and keep the them active all the time. This allows Simulator to conencted to ROS faster.

1. Launch Unreal Editor with below command.

OpenProject.bat

1. Start ROS1 in Ubuntu WSL

roslaunch rosbridge_server rosbridge_tcp.launch bson_only_mode:=True

1. Start ROS1 to ROS2 Bridge with new Ubuntu WSL terminal

ROS2 && ros2 run ros1_bridge dynamic_bridge --bridge-all-topics

1. In Unreal Editor navigate to Content/Agrarsense/Maps/SensorShowCase and open SensorShowCaseMap
2. Press play
3. Spawn wanted sensors through the user interface
4. Open new Ubuntu WSL terminal and type following command to see all current ROS topics

rostopic list

if you see sensors creating new ROS topics then everything is working correctly.

Visualizing sensor output with rviz

rviz is short for ROS Visualization. It's easy way visualize ROS messages, for example camera images and Lidar pointclouds.

1. First follow Testing AGRARSENSE
2. Open new Ubuntu WSL and launch rviz

rviz

If you get 'Could not connect to any X display' error, you may need to install Xming.

First download and install Xming. After installing start the Xming program.

Now open new Windows termianl and type

ipconfig

Now go back to Ubuntu WSL terminal and type

export DISPLAY=<Windows-IP>:0.0

Where <Windows-IP> is your computer IP. For example:

export DISPLAY=192.168.1.100:0.0

After setting the IP, you should be able to launch rviz with

rviz

1. Now that rviz is open click 'Add' from the bottom left corner. This opens new window. In the window click 'By topic' tab. This tab should show all topics that rviz is able to visualize. For example if you have Lidar sensor active in the simulation, you should see /Agrarsense/Sensors/Lidar0/PointCloud2. Select that and click ok.
2. Click 'Fixed Frame' and rename it to world and you should now see Lidar sensor pointcloud being visualized.

Creating packaged build

To create packaged shipping build, you can either:

A. Create package without opening the Unreal Editor with following command. This script packages the project into ./Build folder

CreatePackage.bat

B. Or launch the Unreal Editor with following command and create the package in the Unreal Editor.

OpenProject.bat

Maps to include in the packaged build is defined in DefaultGame.ini file.

Modifying AGRARSENSE source

When modifying Blueprints or Widget Blueprints in Unreal Editor, simply click compile and save in the Unreal Editor as in with any Unreal project.

When modifying AGRARSENSE Unreal project C++ source or plugins C++ source, you must close the Unreal Editor, compile C++ and then open the Unreal Editor again or else changes will not take effect. This can be done with same scripts as above.

Note. Unreal Engine does support compiling C++ in Unreal Editor through Live Coding but your experience may vary depending what piece of code you work on.

To compile and open the Unreal Editor with one command:

OpenProject.bat

To just compile C++ source and plugins

Compile.bat

Compiling in Visual Studio

Open Agrarsense.sln with Visual Studio, right click Agrarsense in the Solution Explorer and click Build.

Keeping AGRARSENSE updated

To keep AGRARSENSE updated, open File explorer at Agrarsense/Unreal/Agrarsense/ and double clickUpdate.bat or open terminal at that location and type:

Update.bat

This bat script simply pulls the git repository. You can achieve the same by opening command line at Agrarsense root directory and typing git pull or use any Git GUI application such as Github Desktop and keep repository updated through it.