Build and Install

Releases and distributions

PlanSys2 4.0.0 is the same version for Humble, Jazzy, Kilted and Lyrical: the same features and the same code in every distribution. It brings Kairos as the default planner, the execution of everything Kairos plans (conditional effects, timed literals, PDDL+, constraints…) and the execution trace. The earlier releases are documented in version 3.1.0 of this site (version selector, bottom left).

Install the binaries

  1. Install ROS 2 as described in the official documentation.

  2. Install PlanSys2:

    sudo apt install 'ros-<distro>-plansys2-*'

Note

4.0.0 reaches the binaries of each distribution with its next sync: until then, apt installs the previous release. To use 4.0.0 now, build it from source as the next section explains, with the <distro>-devel branch of PlanSys2 and the <distro> branch of the examples.

Build from source

PlanSys2 needs some packages that every distribution has as binaries, and that a source build of rolling builds with it:

Each repository lists them in dependency_repos.repos; vcs clones them:

sudo apt install python3-vcstool
mkdir -p ~/plansys2_ws/src
cd ~/plansys2_ws/src
git clone -b rolling https://github.com/PlanSys2/ros2_planning_system.git
vcs import < ros2_planning_system/dependency_repos.repos

# The examples, optional
git clone -b rolling https://github.com/PlanSys2/ros2_planning_system_examples.git
vcs import --skip-existing < ros2_planning_system_examples/dependency_repos.repos

cd ~/plansys2_ws
rosdep install -y -r -q --from-paths src --ignore-src
colcon build --symlink-install

  • For a released distribution, use <distro>-devel instead of rolling for PlanSys2 (for instance jazzy-devel) and <distro> for the examples (for instance jazzy).

  • The examples’ dependency_repos.repos also lists PlanSys2 itself: --skip-existing keeps the one cloned above.

Choosing the middleware

PlanSys2 works with any ROS 2 middleware (RMW), but we recommend Zenoh, the one we develop and test PlanSys2 with; Cyclone DDS works as well. Our stress tests start PlanSys2, its performers and the controller of each example in every order (all at once, the controller first, PlanSys2 minutes later…), three times each. With Zenoh and Cyclone DDS they never failed. With Fast DDS, the default RMW of ROS 2, some runs lost messages while everything was starting: the server side gives up a response it cannot deliver (failed to send response ... client will not receive response). PlanSys2 sends such requests again, but the processes of an application (a navigation performer and its navigation stack, for instance) may not.

RMW

Runs that ended well

Zenoh

57 of 57

Cyclone DDS

57 of 57

Fast DDS

45 of 57

To use Zenoh, which also needs its router running (once per machine):

sudo apt install ros-<distro>-rmw-zenoh-cpp
export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_zenoh_cpp
ros2 run rmw_zenoh_cpp rmw_zenohd

To use Cyclone DDS:

sudo apt install ros-<distro>-rmw-cyclonedds-cpp
export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_cyclonedds_cpp

All the processes (PlanSys2, the performers, the controller) must use the same RMW.

If you stay with Fast DDS: processes killed with kill -9 or crashed leave shared memory segments behind in /dev/shm, and later processes may send to them and lose messages. fastdds shm clean removes them.

Optional planners

TFD is another plan solver plugin. Install TFD first, as its repository explains, then clone the plugin into the workspace (it has the branches rolling, lyrical and humble):

cd ~/plansys2_ws/src
git clone -b rolling https://github.com/PlanSys2/plansys2_tfd_plan_solver.git

See Plugins to choose the planners PlanSys2 uses.