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Development Environment Setup

Configure your development environment for optimal AirStack development workflow. This guide covers IDE setup, debugging tools, and recommended configurations.

Prerequisites

  • Completed Getting Started
  • Docker and Docker Compose installed
  • Basic familiarity with ROS 2 and Linux

Host Machine

Operating System: Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 LTS (recommended)

Hardware:

  • CPU: 8+ cores recommended
  • RAM: 16GB minimum, 32GB+ recommended
  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3070 or better for Isaac Sim
  • Storage: SSD with 100GB+ free space

Software:

  • Docker with NVIDIA Container Toolkit
  • Git with SSH keys configured
  • VSCode or your preferred IDE

Docker-Based Development

All AirStack development happens inside Docker containers. This ensures:

  • Consistent environment across developers
  • Isolated dependencies don't affect host system
  • Easy cleanup without residual files
  • Reproducible builds and testing

IDE Configuration

VSCode provides excellent ROS 2 and C++ support.

Recommended Extensions:

The recommended extensions can be installed automatically in VSCode. When you open the AirStack folder in VSCode, it should prompt you to install the recommended extensions from .vscode/extensions.json. Click "Install All" to get the necessary tools for development.

  • ROS extension
  • C/C++ extension (Microsoft)
  • Python extension
  • Docker extension
  • CMake Tools
  • YAML extension

Development Workflow

Container-Based Workflow

  1. Start containers without autolaunch: 

    AUTOLAUNCH=false airstack up robot-desktop

  2. Build your changes: 

    docker exec airstack-robot-desktop-1 bash -c "bws --packages-select my_package"

  3. Source workspace: 

    docker exec airstack-robot-desktop-1 bash -c "sws"

  4. Run/test: 

    docker exec airstack-robot-desktop-1 bash -c "sws && ros2 launch my_package my_launch.xml"

Interactive Development

For frequent rebuilds during development:

# Connect to container interactively (careful with prompts!)
airstack connect airstack-robot-desktop-1 

# Inside container
cd /opt/ros_ws
bws --packages-select my_package
sws
ros2 launch my_package my_launch.xml