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Mac Setup

Pre-req Installation​

Homebrew Package Manager​

You will need a package manager to install the necessary dependencies for our software set up. Open terminal then past the follow command into the terminal:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

To install packages use brew install <package>

Docker Desktop​

Download Docker Desktop for the architecture you have on your computer.

Installation​

1. Create a working directory​

mkdir ~/wuair
cd ~/wuair

2. Clone the system repository​

git clone https://github.com/WU-AI-Racing/wuair_system.git
cd wuair_system

Docker Setup (VNC)​

The system provides a web-based VNC environment with ROS 2 Humble and XFCE.

1. Build the Docker image​

To build the image and start both the ROS environment and the VNC server in the background, run the following command from the root of the repository:

docker compose --profile mac up -d --build

2. Access the desktop​

Open your browser and navigate to:

http://localhost:6080/vnc.html

You will have full access to the ROS2 XFCE desktop environment.

Note: The VNC server runs without authentication by default. Use only on local or trusted networks.

3. Run the VNC container after building for the first time​

docker compose --profile mac up -d

Open your browser and navigate to:

http://localhost:6080/vnc.html
  • To stop the container:
docker compose --profile mac down

Running the Simulation​

After connecting via VNC:

  1. Open a terminal in the container.
  2. For useful aliases run
source src/.rosbashrc.sh`

or if using zsh

source src/.roshzshrc

That will give you the following short-cut commands:

tip

Don't paste this into your terminal. This is just a list of the commands and the alias contained in the contrainer.

# Source ROS 2 and your workspace
alias .r='source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash'
alias .w='source /ros2_ws/install/setup.bash'
alias .ws='cd /ros2_ws'
alias eufs='ros2 launch eufs_launcher eufs_launcher.launch.py'
alias wuair_gui='ros2 run wuair_launcher gui'

# Build and clean
alias cb='cd /ros2_ws && colcon build'
alias cbc='cd /ros2_ws && rm -rf build install log && colcon build'
alias cl='cd /ros2_ws && rm -rf build install log'1

# List ROS environment info
alias envr='env | grep ROS'


# Shortcuts
alias ll='ls -lah --color=auto'
alias gs='git status'
alias gp='git pull'
alias gd='git diff'

# Run tmux if available
alias tm='tmux attach || tmux'

# --- Auto-source workspace on container login ---
if [ -f /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash ]; then
    source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
fi

# Auto-source your own workspace if it's been built
if [ -f /ros2_ws/install/setup.bash ]; then
    source /ros2_ws/install/setup.bash
fi

export ROS_WORKSPACE=/ros2_ws
export ROS_DISTRO=humble
export EUFS_MASTER=/ros2_ws/src/eufs_master

  1. Build the workspace:
.r
colcon build --symlink-install
.w

Note: If you see a lot of warning message don't worry. Ignore them and move onto launching the simulation.

  1. Launch the simulation:
ros2 launch eufs_launcher eufs_launcher.launch.py
  1. Launch WUAIR file:
ros2 run wuair_launcher gui