install-openrave.md

Install OpenRAVE

We use the OpenRAVE core library for simulations. Official links: http://openrave.org, OpenRAVE: Building and Installing.

• Install OpenRAVE (Ubuntu 18.04)
  • Known Issues (Ubuntu 18.04)
• Install OpenRAVE (Ubuntu 16.04 and 14.04)
  • Known Issues (Ubuntu 16.04)
• Install OpenRAVE (Ubuntu 12.04)
• Install OpenRAVE (Windows)
• Install Additional Plugins: Flexible Collision Library (FCL)
  • FCL Known Issues (Ubuntu 16.04)
• Install Additional Plugins: OpenSceneGraph (OSG)
• Additional Information
  • Offscreen Rendering (OpenRAVE RGB Cameras)
  • Generate Databases
  • Source Code Hacks
  • Similar and Related Projects
• External Installation Tutorial/Script Links

Install OpenRAVE (Ubuntu 18.04)

No official PPA, install from source. Note that you will be prompted for your password upon using sudo.

sudo apt install git
sudo apt install libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-python-dev libboost-thread-dev libboost-iostreams-dev
sudo apt install libqt4-dev qt4-dev-tools libxml2-dev libode-dev
sudo apt install libsoqt4-dev libcoin80-dev
sudo apt install rapidjson-dev
sudo apt install python-scipy  # For openravepy. Note that Xenial sympy is 0.7.6, see next line
pip install --upgrade --user sympy==0.7.1 # OpenRAVE ikfast needs sympy 0.7.1, https://github.com/rdiankov/openrave/pull/407
sudo apt install libcollada-dom2.4-dp-dev  # Open .zae files, only Ubuntu 16.04
cd  # go home
mkdir -p repos; cd repos  # create $HOME/repos if it doesn't exist; then, enter it
git clone --branch boost-1.6x-forcompile https://github.com/roboticslab-uc3m/openrave.git # git clone --branch master https://github.com/rdiankov/openrave.git
cd openrave; mkdir build; cd build
cmake .. -DOPT_VIDEORECORDING=OFF  # Avoids AV errors
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install; cd  # install and go home

Note that you may end up requiring over 2 GB of free space during the installation of apt dependencies. To avoid that, use the --no-install-recommends option as in:

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends package

Thus, apt would not try to install non-critical packages marked as recommended by the dependencies of OpenRAVE.

Known Issues (Ubuntu 18.04)

• In case you run into non-constant-expression cannot be narrowed from type 'double' to 'float' in initializer list [-Wc++11-narrowing] errors (happened on OpenRAVE 0.15 and a Clang 6.0.0/7.0.0 compiler), reconfigure CMake with the following option: cmake .. -DOPT_IKFAST_FLOAT32=OFF

Install OpenRAVE (Ubuntu 16.04 and 14.04)

No official PPA, install from source. Note that you will be prompted for your password upon using sudo.

sudo apt install git
sudo apt install libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-python-dev libboost-thread-dev libboost-iostreams-dev
sudo apt install libqt4-dev qt4-dev-tools libxml2-dev libode-dev
sudo apt install libsoqt4-dev libcoin80-dev
sudo apt install python-scipy  # For openravepy. Note that Xenial sympy is 0.7.6, see next line
pip install --upgrade --user sympy==0.7.1 # OpenRAVE ikfast needs sympy 0.7.1, https://github.com/rdiankov/openrave/pull/407
sudo apt install libcollada-dom2.4-dp-dev  # Open .zae files, only Ubuntu 16.04
cd  # go home
mkdir -p repos; cd repos  # create $HOME/repos if it doesn't exist; then, enter it
git clone --branch v0.9.0 https://github.com/rdiankov/openrave.git
cd openrave; mkdir build; cd build
cmake .. -DOPT_VIDEORECORDING=OFF  # Avoids AV errors
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install; cd  # install and go home

Note that you may end up requiring over 2 GB of free space during the installation of apt dependencies. To avoid that, use the --no-install-recommends option as in:

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends package

Thus, apt would not try to install non-critical packages marked as recommended by the dependencies of OpenRAVE.

Known Issues (Ubuntu 16.04)

• OpenRAVE v0.9.0 with gcc-7 fails to compile. Recommendation: switch back to gcc-5 (Ubuntu 5.5.0-12ubuntu1~16.04) 5.5.0 20171010.

Install OpenRAVE (Ubuntu 12.04)

To install a precompiled version of OpenRAVE, type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openrave/release
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openrave

Install OpenRAVE (Windows)

Long ago, this was easy. Now, installers such as openrave-0.9.0-5cfc74-win32-vc100-setup are broken (due to broken Boost 1.44 and Qt links, as well as old Visual Studio version), so we have to go old-school.

References:

• http://robots.uc3m.es/index.php/OpenRAVE_R1457_Windows_Install
• https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~motionplanning/homework/hw1/hw1.html
• http://openrave.org/docs/latest_stable/coreapihtml/installation_windows.html
• http://sukhoy.public.iastate.edu/openrave/
• https://github.com/rdiankov/openrave

Install Additional Plugins: Flexible Collision Library (FCL)

The following is the Cannonical PPA way, which may not work for you.

sudo apt install libfcl-dev
cd $HOME/repos/openrave; mkdir build; cd build; cmake .. -DOPENRAVE_PLUGIN_FCLRAVE=ON
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install; cd  # install and go home

The CMakes options when recompiling OpenRAVE are OPT_FCL_COLLISION / OPENRAVE_PLUGIN_FCLRAVE.

FCL Known Issues (Ubuntu 16.04)

With the Cannonical PPA way, you'll run into:

-- Checking for module 'fcl'
--   Found fcl, version 0.3.2
-- Could not find FCL. Please install FCL (https://github.com/flexible-collision-library/fcl)

FCL 0.5.0 has been identified as working. Compile and install it via:

mkdir -p repos; cd repos # create $HOME/repos if it doesn't exist; then, enter it
git clone --branch 0.5.0 https://github.com/flexible-collision-library/fcl
cd fcl; mkdir build; cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install; cd  # install and go home

Install Additional Plugins: OpenSceneGraph (OSG)

To get OSG to compile against OpenRAVE, first, you must download a specific version (OpenSceneGraph-3.4.1 for OpenRAVE v0.9.0) and set a CMake flag to use a specific Qt version (-DDESIRED_QT_VERSION=4 for OpenRAVE v0.9.0):

sudo apt-get install libcairo2-dev libjasper-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libsdl2-dev libtiff5-dev libxrandr-dev
git clone --branch OpenSceneGraph-3.4.1 https://github.com/openscenegraph/OpenSceneGraph
cd OpenSceneGraph && mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DDESIRED_QT_VERSION=4
make -j4
sudo make install

Then you must fix a set of environmental variables for OpenRAVE to actually detect OSG (else, error such as Required > 3.4, failed because detected 3.4.2):

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/lib64:/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
export OPENTHREADS_INC_DIR="/usr/local/include"
export OPENTHREADS_LIB_DIR="/usr/local/lib64:/usr/local/lib"
export PATH="$OPENTHREADS_LIB_DIR:$PATH"

The CMakes options when recompiling OpenRAVE are OPT_QTOSG_VIEWER / OPENRAVE_PLUGIN_QTOSGRAVE (and the viewer is called "qtosg" in contrast to "qtcoin").

Additional Information

Offscreen Rendering (OpenRAVE RGB Cameras)

OpenRAVE requires "Offscreen Rendering" (more specifically called "indirect GLX rendering") to enable virtual RGB cameras in simulated environments. This section summarizes the conclusions from openrave-yarp-plugins#48.

Symptoms that you have no "Offscreen Rendering"

1. The OpenRAVE showsensors examples seem to work, but no separate window is open displaying the RGB camera output:
   • OpenRAVE src/cppexamples/orshowsensors.cpp
   • OpenRAVE python/examples/showsensors.py (requires Python openravepy module)
2. Cannot publish RGB camera output via YarpOpenraveGrabber nor YarpOpenraveRGBDSensor:
   • roboticslab-uc3m openrave-yarp-plugins/libraries/YarpPlugins (perma) (examples require Python openravepy module due to openrave-yarp-plugins#60)
3. You cannot generate .jpg files with the following snippet:
   • jgvictores snippets/coin3d (perma) (requires libsimage-dev)

Solution (as of OpenRAVE v0.9.0, all requirements must be met)

1. Install working NVIDIA drivers
2. Create a custom /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/80-custom-glx.conf file (in old Ubuntu distros, this would be part of /etc/X11/xorg.conf) with the following contents:

Section "ServerFlags"
   Option "AllowIndirectGLX" "on"
   Option "IndirectGLX" "on"
EndSection

1. Forget about environmental variables COIN_FULL_INDIRECT_RENDERING=1 or COIN_DONT_INFORM_INDIRECT_RENDERING=1 unless you're concerned with warnings: no real effect.
2. Reboot (resarting the desktop environment should suffice)
3. For OpenRAVE, use "qtcoin" as viewer (not "qtosg")
4. Recall that roboticslab-uc3m openrave-yarp-plugins/libraries/YarpPlugins (perma) examples require Python and therefore openravepy module due to openrave-yarp-plugins#60

If you have no NVIDIA, probably the most interesting read is at openrave-yarp-plugins#48 on DRI and AiGLX, but no results here yet.

Generate Databases

• https://github.com/roboticslab-uc3m/teo-openrave-models/tree/develop/scripts (permalink)
• roboticslab-uc3m/teo-openrave-models#3
• https://github.com/roboticslab-uc3m/openrave-tools
• https://github.com/roboticslab-uc3m/openrave-yarp-plugins

Source Code Hacks

Here's a small patch tested on OpenRAVE v0.9.0 to enhance console output on joint limits (provides joint name, and angles in degrees):

cd $HOME/repos/openrave
wget https://github.com/roboticslab-uc3m/openrave-yarp-plugins/files/3896779/98-limit-output.patch.log
git apply 98-limit-output.patch.log # modifies `plugins/basecontrollers/idealcontroller.cpp`
wget https://github.com/roboticslab-uc3m/openrave-yarp-plugins/files/3898656/98-limit-output-2.patch.log
git apply 98-limit-output-2.patch.log # modifies `src/libopenrave/kinbody.cpp`
cd build; cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install; cd  # install and go home

Similar and Related Projects

• https://github.com/roboticslab-uc3m?q=openrave (roboticslab-uc3m)
• https://github.com/personalrobotics?q=openrave
• https://github.com/stephane-caron?tab=repositories&q=openrave
• https://github.com/crigroup?q=openrave
• https://github.com/roboticsleeds?q=openrave
• https://github.com/jsk-ros-pkg/openrave_planning
• http://opengrasp.sourceforge.net (https://sourceforge.net/p/opengrasp/code/HEAD/tree/)
• http://www.iearobotics.com/wiki/index.php?title=OpenRave_y_robots_modulares
• Tutorials
  • https://scaron.info/teaching/getting-started-with-openrave.html

External Installation Tutorial/Script Links

• https://scaron.info/teaching/installing-openrave-on-ubuntu-16.04.html
• https://github.com/crigroup/openrave-installation
  • Older by same user: [ref1, trusty, see next link if still in trouble with FCL].
  • Older by same user: [ref2, xenial].
• [ref3, xenial].
• https://hub.docker.com/r/hamzamerzic/openrave