Implement ROS standard simulation interfaces

[azeey]

🎉 New feature

Toward #732

Summary

Set up

In order to test this, you'll need a source build of gz-sim with the following PRs:

• Expose APIs for clearing the ECMs internal state tracking addition and removal gz-sim#3002
• Add EntitySemantics system that enables setting categories and tags gz-sim#3005
• Refactor Transport service handlers UserCommands gz-sim#2996
• Fix UserCommands services so that they return the actual status the executed command gz-sim#2999

I have removed all Gazebo ROS vendor packages temporarily since those are currently pinned to Ionic. With the recent changes removing the version numbers from the packages, having gz-jetty installed, either from binaries or from source, should be sufficient to build this PR.

Test it

1. Install ROS 2 Rolling

2. Add Gazebo nightlies to your apt sources. Follow https://gazebosim.org/docs/jetty/install_ubuntu/, but use ubuntu-nightly instead of ubuntu-stable.

   deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/pkgs-osrf-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo/ubuntu-nightly noble main
   

3. Install gz-jetty

   sudo apt install gz-jetty
   

4. Create a new workspace and use vcs to checkout standard_interfaces.repos

   mkdir -p ~/ros_gz_ws/src
   cd ~/ros_gz_ws/src
   vcs import --input https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gazebo-tooling/gz_vendor/refs/heads/main/gz_vendor.repos
   touch gz_dartsim_vendor/COLCON_IGNORE
   touch gz_ogre_next_vendor/COLCON_IGNORE
   
   git clone https://github.com/azeey/ros_gz -b standard_interfaces
   cd ..
   

5. Source rolling and install dependencies

   source /opt/ros/rolling/setup.bash
   export GZ_BUILD_FROM_SOURCE=1
   rosdep install -i -y -r --from-paths src --skip-keys="rviz2 sdformat_urdf"
   
   

6. Build workspace

   colcon build
   

7. Run tests
   colcon test --packages-select ros_gz_sim

8. If you want to run just the tests introduced in this PR, in a new terminal:

   source ~/ros_gz_ws/install/setup.bash
   cd ~/ros_gz/ws/build/ros_gz_sim
   ctest -R gz_simulation
   

Tip

If the build fails with c++: fatal error, it likely ran out of memory. Try building with colcon build --parallel-workers=1 --executor sequential

Note

If the build fails due to missing APIs. It is likely that somehow, ros_gz_sim is being build against the Gazebo install in the system instead of the one we are building from source. If this happens, uninstall libgz-sim10, remove the build/ros_gz_sim directory and build again.

Checklist

• Signed all commits for DCO
• Added tests
• Added example and/or tutorial
• Updated documentation (as needed)
• Updated migration guide (as needed)
• Consider updating Python bindings (if the library has them)
• codecheck passed (See contributing)
• All tests passed (See test coverage)
• While waiting for a review on your PR, please help review another open pull request to support the maintainers
• Was GenAI used to generate this PR? If so, make sure to add "Generated-by" to your commits. (See this policy for more info.)

Note to maintainers: Remember to use Squash-Merge and edit the commit message to match the pull request summary while retaining Signed-off-by and Generated-by messages.

[iche033]

tested various services using https://github.com/RobotecAI/q_simulation_interfaces and they work great. Just one minor issue with running the simulate step action multiple times.

[iche033]

When testing the simulate step action, the first action call works fine but subsequent action seems to fail and end up here saying another goal is running.

[azeey]

Fixed in 7dc79c6

[iche033]

we can ticket the simulation step action issue and address that if needed. Otherwise the code looks good.

[azeey]

@ros-pull-request-builder retest this please

[azeey]

@Mergifyio backport kilted jazzy

[mergify]

backport kilted jazzy

✅ Backports have been created

• #801 Implement ROS standard simulation interfaces (backport #790) has been created for branch kilted
• #802 Implement ROS standard simulation interfaces (backport #790) has been created for branch jazzy but encountered conflicts