Guide: How to install the Darpa Arm Simulator [closed]

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Guide: How to install the Darpa Arm Simulator (June 2012)
Ubuntu 10.04.4
ROS CTurtle

Hi all,

Unfortunately a couple of things have broken with the install procedure for the Arm Simulator, so hopefully this guide will help some other people who are trying to install it.

Important: Start with a fresh install of Ubuntu 10.04.4 and ROS CTurtle. vYou will not easily build the simulator on anything else!

Follow the install guide:
http://www.thearmrobot.com/trac/wiki/ARMSimulatorInstallation

But note the following fixes when you get stuck...

.

When you run:

$ rosinstall --delete-changed-uris ./ ./external-re2darmSim.rosinstall

you get an error:

ERROR in config: Managed Element paths overlap: 
{'svn': {'local-name': 'stacks/darpa_arm_sim_servers', 
'uri': 'http://svn.thearmrobot.com/darpa_arm_sim_servers'}}, 
{'svn': {'local-name': 'stacks/darpa_arm_sim_servers/re2logger', 
'uri': 'http://svn.thearmrobot.com/re2logger'}}

This may be related to a 2012 change in rosinstall.
It doesn't allow you to install a 2nd stack inside an existing stack, because if the underlying stack is updated, it might delete the other one.

So you need to edit the "external-re2darmSim.rosinstall" file
and change the install location for the re2logger stack.
Make it something like stacks/re2logger

.

Next problem was with running the final "rosmake" command
in the arm_simulator directory.

you get an error:

[rosstack] couldn't find dependency [darpa_arm_clients] of [darpa_arm_sim_servers]
[rosstack] missing dependency

but rosmake continues, and you can just ignore this error.

.

However a more serious problem is that the Gazebo doesn't build automatically:

you get an error:

mkdir -p bin
cd build && cmake -Wdev -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=`rospack find rosbuild`/rostoolchain.cmake ..
[rosbuild] Building package gazebo
[rosbuild] Including /opt/ros/cturtle/ros/core/roscpp/cmake/roscpp.cmake
[rosbuild] Including /opt/ros/cturtle/ros/core/rospy/cmake/rospy.cmake
[rosbuild] Including /opt/ros/cturtle/ros/core/roslisp/cmake/roslisp.cmake
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dbworth/arm_simulator/stacks/simulator_gazebo/gazebo'
svn --non-interactive co -r 8967 https://playerstage.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/playerstage/code/gazebo/branches/wg build/gazebo-svn
svn: '/svnroot/playerstage/!svn/bc/9097/code/gazebo/branches/wg' path not found
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dbworth/arm_simulator/stacks/simulator_gazebo/gazebo'
make[1]: *** [build/gazebo-svn] Error 1
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:16 (message):
Build of Gazebo failed


-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

The error is about "path not found", but that's because svn is defaulting to download the current (9097) release, and that path no longer exists in that release.
However, the installer actually wants to download the older 8967 release, but the svn command line switch "-r" doesn't work anymore, so it ignores "-r 8967" and just tries to grab the current release instead.

The correct command to download the required source from the 8967 release into the 'build/gazebo-svn' directory is:

$ svn co https://playerstage.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/playerstage/code/gazebo/branches/wg@8967 build/gazebo-svn

So lets edit the appropriate makefile...

$ cd ~/arm_simulator/old_simulator_gazebo/gazebo

Backup the old makefile:

$ cp Makefile.gazebo.svn old-Makefile.gazebo.svn

Edit the makefile:

$ pico Makefile.gazebo.svn

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