Gazebo Simulation Environment Requirements and Limitations

Robotics System Toolbox™ provides an interface for a simulation environment visualized using the Gazebo Simulator. Gazebo enables you to test and experiment using robots in realistically simulated physical scenarios with high quality graphics.

Gazebo runs on Linux^® machines or Linux virtual machines, and uses a plugin package to communicate with MATLAB^® and Simulink^®. When simulating in Gazebo, the requirements and limitations in mind.

Run Gazebo Simulator on Linux Virtual Machine

Download and install the virtual machine (VM) from Virtual Machine with ROS and Gazebo. In the VM, the required Gazebo plugin is located in the /home/user/src/GazeboPlugin folder. The VM contains these software and has these hardware requirements.

Software Included in VM

Operating System — Ubuntu^® Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)
Software packages — CMake 3.16.3, Gazebo 11, and the Gazebo plugin

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Processor (CPU) — Quad core Intel^® i5, or equivalent
Memory (RAM) — 4 GB or more
Graphics card (GPU) — Dedicated GPU with 1 GB or more graphics memory
Disk space — At least 20 GB free disk space

Install and Run Gazebo Simulator on Linux Machine

You can also install and run the Gazebo Simulator on a Linux machine.

Software Requirements

Operating System — Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) or Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) or Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)
Software packages — CMake 2.8 or later, Gazebo 9 or Gazebo 10 or Gazebo 11, and the Gazebo plugin

Gazebo Version	Supported Ubuntu Version
Gazebo 9	Ubuntu Xenial and Ubuntu Bionic
Gazebo 10	Ubuntu Xenial and Ubuntu Bionic
Gazebo 11	Ubuntu Bionic and Ubuntu Focal

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Processor (CPU) — Quad core Intel i5, or equivalent
Memory (RAM) — 4 GB or more
Graphics card (GPU) — Dedicated GPU with 1 GB or more graphics memory
Disk space — At least 500 MB free disk space

Gazebo Simulator Installation

Install the CMake and Gazebo packages on Ubuntu by running these commands at the Linux terminal. For more information on installing Gazebo on Ubuntu machine, see Install Gazebo using Ubuntu packages.

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo/ubuntu-stable `lsb_release -cs` main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gazebo-stable.list'
wget https://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cmake gazebo11 libgazebo11-dev

Note

Gazebo co-simulation framework supports Gazebo 9, Gazebo 10, and Gazebo 11.

Gazebo Plugin Installation

Create a Gazebo plugin package on the host computer in MATLAB by using the packageGazeboPlugin function. This function creates a folder called GazeboPlugin in your current working directory and compresses it into a GazeboPlugin.zip file.
```
packageGazeboPlugin
```
Copy GazeboPlugin.zip to the home directory of your Linux machine.
Create a directory, src, and unzip the plugin package to that directory.
```
mkdir src
unzip GazeboPlugin.zip -d ~/src/
```
Change the directory to the uncompressed GazeboPlugin folder.
```
cd ~/src/GazeboPlugin/
```
Run these commands in the Linux terminal to compile and install the plugin.
```
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
```

Optionally, you can remove the generated plugin from the host computer using MATLAB.

if exist("GazeboPlugin","dir")
    rmdir("GazeboPlugin","s");
end

if exist("GazeboPlugin.zip","file")
    delete("GazeboPlugin.zip");
end

Limitations

MATLAB

Code generation is not supported.
Communication between MATLAB and the Gazebo Simulator is asynchronous.

Simulink

Code generation is not supported.
Rapid accelerator mode is not supported.

Tips

Use matching values for sample time across the Simulink model and sensor update rate in Gazebo World specifications to get the desired sensor data update rate.

External Websites

Gazebo