ROS2 Series

ROS2 - The New Face of Robotics Software

Imagine a software that allows you to program how the robots around you move or work and it's not just about programming any ordinary line-following robot. It’s also about giving them the ability to sense, decide, and act in actual environments.

ROS2 makes this possible with real-time control, smooth coordination between multiple robots, and flexibility to run on anything, from tiny robot kits to massive industrial robots - entirely reshaping the future of robotics software as we know it.

But Why Use ROS2?

Let's do a small "With v/s Without" comparison for ROS2 to truly understand it's role and usage

Aspects	Without ROS2	With ROS2
Development Efforts	each robot must be programmed from scratch, meaning wasting more time.	provides ready-to-use frameworks, saving time and efforts.
Communication	hard to connect sensors, actuators, and controllers.	easy real-time communication between all components.
Scalability	difficult to add new robots or features.	easily scales to multiple robots and new functionalities.
Response Time	slow decision-making in dynamic environments.	fast and reliable responses with respect to its surroundings.
Security & Reliability	limited safety and reliability in critical tasks.	built-in security and dependable operations for any use case.

Installing WSL for Windows OS

Okay, so let's now talk about some points to keep in mind before installing WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) -

make sure you have Windows 10 or Higher Version of Windows in your PC
virtualization must be enabled in your BIOS (already enabled by default, so don't worry)

Open Command-Prompt/Terminal and Run the following Command -
```
wsl --install 
```
this will enable WSL and VM as a base platform for installing Ubuntu later ahead, and with this way you'll be able to easily install Ubuntu in your PC.
For using ROS2-Humble (Hawksbill) in Ubuntu via WSL you'll need to install Ubuntu 22.04, and to check if it's available online all you'll need to do is run the following command-
```
wsl --list --online
wsl --install -d Ubuntu-22.04
```
After successfully installing Ubuntu 22.04 via WSL, you'll have to open it and set a username + password for Linux, so that you can use it securely when you're in the Ubuntu GUI.

Install ROS2-Humble in Ubuntu 22.04

Follow the set of below mentioned commands to make sure that your Ubuntu is set-up properly and there are no break-points or fault so that we can smoothly install ROS2 in it.

Update Packages -
```
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
```

Set Locale -

sudo apt install locales -y
sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
sudo update-locale LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Setup ROS2 Repository -

sudo apt install software-properties-common -y
sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl gnupg lsb-release -y

Add ROS2 GPG Key & Repository -

ROS2 GPG Key

sudo curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg

ROS2 Repository

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null

Install ROS2-Humble

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install ros-humble-desktop -y

Source ROS2 in Every Session
```
echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
```
Congratulations! you just successfully set-up ROS2-Humble in your Ubuntu-22.04 via WSL

Verify Your Installation

We want to make sure that we have successfully installed ROS2 in our Ubuntu-22.04 because if we later try to create a node (basically other name for a file in ROS2) and it doesn't get created, we'll be totally screwed.

Check the ROS2 Distro
```
echo $ROS_DISTRO
```
if your recieve the output as humble then that means you have correctly sourced an Ubuntu-version suitable distro.
Run a Sample ROS2 Command
```
wsl -d Ubuntu-22.04
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker
```
you should see an output somewhat like this - [INFO] [talker]: Publishing: 'Hello World: 1'

then, open another terminal and type the below command -
```
wsl -d Ubuntu-22.04
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp listener
```
you should see an output somewhat like this - [INFO] [listener]: I heard: 'Hello World: 1'

if this works, your ROS2 Installation is Successfully Completed! Great Work. Now in the upcoming blogs, we'll learn -

How to Create Packages and Nodes within that Packages
How to Save, Edit and Run a Sample Node
Configuring Console Scripts for the Entry Points in the setup.py file
Understanding the Use and Meaning of various Commands in ROS2

Thank You for Reading this Blog! Written by Aayush A. Mishra - August, 2025

System Design 003 - ...

ROS2 Series