Installation guide

Overview

mc_rtc is an interface for simulation and robot control systems. These systems should provide the state of a given robot (joints’ values, sensor readings…) and in return mc_rtc will provide the desired robot’s state (command). This is done through the mc_control::MCGlobalController class. This class does not perform control by itself but rather delegates this task to the mc_control::MCController derived objects that it holds. Writing a controller within the mc_rtc framework is done by writing a class that inherits from the mc_control::MCController base class and implements the required functionnality. We implement such a controller in the following tutorials. The present tutorial simply explains how to build/install the framework on your machine.

architecture_overview

Installation instruction

We provide binaries for the current Ubuntu LTS releases and macOS via Homebrew. We also provide a source release using an easy-to-use script for Ubuntu, macOS and Windows and a vcpkg registry.

Binaries are recommended for Ubuntu users and macOS users. vcpkg is recommended for Windows users.

Ubuntu LTS (18.04, 20.04, 22.04)

# Setup the mirror
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/mc-rtc/stable/setup.deb.sh' | sudo -E bash
# Install packages
sudo apt install libmc-rtc-dev mc-rtc-utils
# Assuming you have a ROS distribution mirror setup
sudo apt install ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-mc-rtc-plugin ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-mc-rtc-tools
# Setup the mirror
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/mc-rtc/head/setup.deb.sh' | sudo -E bash
# Install packages
sudo apt install libmc-rtc-dev mc-rtc-utils
# Assuming you have a ROS distribution mirror setup
sudo apt install ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-mc-rtc-plugin ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-mc-rtc-tools

Note: the distributed version of mc_rtc runs with the QLD QP solver through eigen-qld. If you have access to the LSSOL solver and thus can install eigen-lssol then you can build Tasks with LSSOL support and install it in /usr. The two versions are binary compatible.

Homebrew (macOS)

Follow the official instructions to install Homebrew. Then:

brew tap mc-rtc/mc-rtc
brew install mc_rtc

vcpkg

Follow vcpkg instruction to install vcpkg on your system.

You can then setup our registry by creating a vcpkg-configuration.json file either alongside the vcpkg binary or alongside your vcpkg.json manifest:

{
  "registries": [
    {
      "kind": "git",
      "baseline": "{see below}",
      "repository": "https://github.com/mc-rtc/vcpkg-registry",
      "packages": [ "libnotify", "hpp-spline", "ndcurves", "tvm",
                    "spacevecalg", "rbdyn", "eigen-qld", "sch-core", "tasks",
                    "mc-rbdyn-urdf", "mc-rtc-data", "eigen-quadprog", "state-observation",
                    "mc-rtc" ]
    }
  ]
}

Where baseline should be the latest commit sha1 on mc-rtc/vcpkg-registry

You can then either:

  • install mc_rtc via the vcpkg command: vcpkg install mc_rtc
  • use the mc_rtc package in your manifest (vcpkg.json file), such as the following example:
{
  "name": "my-package",
  "version-string": "1.0.0",
  "homepage": "https://my.home",
  "description": "My package description",
  "dependencies": [
    "mc-rtc"
  ]
}

Using mc-rtc-superbuild

mc-rtc-superbuild is a CMake-based option to build mc_rtc and its dependencies. It also provides an extension mechanism to that you can build projects that require mc_rtc.

Please refer to the project’s homepage for usage instructions.

Deprecated options

The following options are also available but are deprecated:

Getting started

Once mc_rtc has been installed, you can jump to the next section.

Next tutorial: Configuring mc_rtc and its components