Installing ROS 2 for simulation — claudeDrone Team Docs

The simulation-side ROS 2 install is the same recipe as the general host PC setup, with one extra package (ros-jazzy-ros-gz) for the Gazebo bridge. This page exists separately because someone setting up only the simulation stack (without ArduPilot SITL) needs a slightly different subset.

Minimal apt install

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ros-jazzy-desktop \
    ros-jazzy-ros-gz \
    ros-jazzy-mavros ros-jazzy-mavros-extras \
    ros-jazzy-rmw-cyclonedds-cpp \
    python3-colcon-common-extensions python3-rosdep
sudo rosdep init && rosdep update

Why each:

ros-jazzy-desktop — ROS 2 core + rviz + visualization tooling.
ros-jazzy-ros-gz — the bridge between ROS 2 topics and Gazebo messages.
ros-jazzy-mavros — MAVLink ↔ ROS 2 translation for talking to ArduPilot.
ros-jazzy-rmw-cyclonedds-cpp — optional alternative DDS implementation, useful for latency-critical tuning (details).
colcon and rosdep — the build system and dependency manager.

Environment

echo 'source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

# Verify
printenv ROS_DISTRO    # → jazzy
ros2 doctor            # → mostly OK

MAVROS-specific extra step

MAVROS needs the geographiclib datasets for its mavros_extras components:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mavlink/mavros/master/mavros/scripts/install_geographiclib_datasets.sh
sudo bash ./install_geographiclib_datasets.sh

Skip this and you’ll see MAVLink: GeographicLib datasets are missing warnings — usually non-fatal, but irritating.

Verify

ros2 launch mavros apm.launch.py fcu_url:=tcp://localhost:5760

If MAVROS connects to a running ArduPilot SITL and starts publishing /mavros/state, the install is good.

Where to go next

Settings hub — env vars and tuning
ROS 2 Jazzy workspace bootstrap — building your first node
Host PC setup — the broader install context