Build a ROS 2 and Zenoh simulation environment on an Arm server
Introduction
Start the ROS 2 development containers
Configure Zenoh for ROS 2
Observe Zenoh router discovery behavior
Start the robot simulation and Navigation2
Visualize and navigate the robot with RViz
Control the Neobotix ROX robot with ROS 2
Observe ROS 2 simulation resource usage on an Arm server
Enable Zenoh shared-memory transport
Next Steps

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Open a bash shell in the robot container

After starting the browser-accessible ROS 2 environment, configure Zenoh for the environment. Start by opening a bash shell in the robot container.

First, get the container ID for the robot container. From an SSH session on the Arm server, run:

    

        
        
docker ps

The output is similar to:

    

        
        CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                     COMMAND                  CREATED      STATUS      PORTS                                                                                                                               NAMES
471c961e54d8   odinlmshen/ros2-zenoh-arm:jazzy-desktop   "/bin/bash -c /entry…"   4 days ago   Up 4 days   0.0.0.0:7447->7447/tcp, 0.0.0.0:7447->7447/udp, [::]:7447->7447/tcp, [::]:7447->7447/udp, 0.0.0.0:6080->80/tcp, [::]:6080->80/tcp   ros_zenoh-robot-1
4b574fe60afe   odinlmshen/ros2-zenoh-arm:jazzy-desktop   "/bin/bash -c /entry…"   4 days ago   Up 4 days   0.0.0.0:6081->80/tcp, [::]:6081->80/tcp                                                                                             ros_zenoh-control-1

Copy the container ID for ros_zenoh-robot-1, such as 471c961e54d8.

Next, open a bash shell in the running robot container:

    

        
        
docker exec -it 471c961e54d8 /bin/bash
Important

Whenever you need a new container shell, repeat docker ps, copy the appropriate container ID, and run the docker exec command.

Copy the router and session configurations

rmw_zenoh uses two configuration files with different responsibilities:

  • ROUTER_CONFIG.json5 configures the Zenoh router
  • SESSION_CONFIG.json5 configures the normal ROS 2 and Zenoh sessions

Keep the installed templates unchanged. Copy them to ~/container_data/ so you can modify the working copies later. This directory is a Docker volume, so the files persist when the container restarts and are also accessible from the host.

Using the open bash shell in the robot container, copy each installed template to the corresponding working file:

    

        
        
cp /opt/ros/jazzy/share/rmw_zenoh_cpp/config/DEFAULT_RMW_ZENOH_ROUTER_CONFIG.json5 \
  ~/container_data/ROUTER_CONFIG.json5

cp /opt/ros/jazzy/share/rmw_zenoh_cpp/config/DEFAULT_RMW_ZENOH_SESSION_CONFIG.json5 \
  ~/container_data/SESSION_CONFIG.json5
Important

The two commands look similar, but the source files are different. Copy DEFAULT_RMW_ZENOH_ROUTER_CONFIG.json5 to ROUTER_CONFIG.json5 and DEFAULT_RMW_ZENOH_SESSION_CONFIG.json5 to SESSION_CONFIG.json5.

Load the workshop environment

Source the workshop environment so ROS 2 uses the new configuration files:

    

        
        
source ~/workshop_env.bash

The output includes both exported paths, and is similar to:

    

        
        ZENOH_ROUTER_CONFIG_URI=/home/ubuntu/container_data/ROUTER_CONFIG.json5
ZENOH_SESSION_CONFIG_URI=/home/ubuntu/container_data/SESSION_CONFIG.json5
Note

From this point, run source ~/workshop_env.bash whenever you open a new bash shell in the robot container.

What you’ve accomplished and what’s next

You’ve created separate router and session configurations and confirmed both exported paths in the ROS 2 environment.

Next, you’ll use three ROS 2 processes to observe the router’s role in discovery.

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