Accessing or Installing ROS 2
In order to engage with the ROS 2 Course you'll need access to a ROS environment.
ROS can be a bit tricky to install, and is primarily supported on only a handful of "Tier 1" operating systems (as listed here), the first (and best) choice being Ubuntu Linux. In order to install or access ROS 2 for this course, we recommend one of the following options. Click on the relevant link below to access further details:
WSL-ROS2 (Windows)¶
University of Sheffield Staff/Students Only
We've created our own custom ROS 2 (Jazzy) and Ubuntu (24.04) environment for WSL specifically for this course, which we call "WSL-ROS2". The environment contains all the tools and ROS packages that you will need for the course exercises and assignments.
This is our recommended option, and there are two ways to access this:
- Install it on your own Windows 10 or 11 machine via the IT Services Software Download Service.
- Access it on a range of managed desktop computers across the University campus.
Mac & Linux¶
For Mac users, the best option for installing ROS 2 on your machine is by using Docker, but please note that performance is not optimal.
The Docker option works very well on Linux.