Installation — Apptainer/Singularity

You can use SRB on HPC clusters or systems where Docker is not available by leveraging Apptainer. Apptainer is a containerization tool similar to Docker but designed for environments with stricter security policies or without Docker support.

Setup (Local)

1. Clone the Repository

First, clone the SRB repository with all submodules:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/AndrejOrsula/space_robotics_bench.git

2. Install Docker Engine & NVIDIA Container Toolkit

  1. Official instructions: Install Docker Engine
  2. Official instructions: Linux post-installation steps for Docker Engine
  3. Official instructions: Installing the NVIDIA Container Toolkit

Install Docker Engine and NVIDIA Container Toolkit either by following the official instructions above or using the provided convenience script:

./space_robotics_bench/.docker/host/install_docker.bash

3. Install Apptainer

Official instructions: Installing Apptainer

Install Apptainer by following the official instructions above. For instance, you can use these commands on Ubuntu:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:apptainer/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y apptainer

4. Build the Apptainer Image

Now you can build the Apptainer image with the provided script:

./space_robotics_bench/.docker/hpc/build.bash

This will create an Apptainer image space_robotics_bench.sif inside the ./space_robotics_bench/.docker/hpc/images/ directory.

Deployment (HPC Cluster)

1. Transfer the Repository (with the Apptainer Image)

Transfer the local SRB repository to the HPC cluster using your preferred method (e.g., scp or rsync):

A. scp

scp -r ./space_robotics_bench user@hpc-cluster:/path/to/space_robotics_bench

B. rsync

rsync -avr ./space_robotics_bench user@hpc-cluster:/path/to/space_robotics_bench

2. SSH into the HPC Cluster

SSH into the HPC cluster:

ssh user@hpc-cluster

3. Run the Apptainer Image

Now you can run the Apptainer image with the provided script inside an interactive session (you might need make some adjustments based on your HPC environment):

# HPC interactive session
/path/to/space_robotics_bench/.docker/hpc/run.bash bash

4. Verify Installation

Once you enter the Apptainer container, verify that everything works as expected.

Isaac Sim

Confirm that you can launch Isaac Sim:

# Inside Apptainer container
"$HOME/isaac-sim/isaac-sim.sh"

Note: The first launch might take a while because Isaac Sim needs to compile shaders and prepare the environment.

Space Robotics Bench

Verify that the srb command is available:

# Inside Apptainer container
srb --help

... continue with Basic Usage

Extras

Schedule a SLURM Job

For long-running tasks or automated workflows, you can schedule a SLURM job that will automatically run the Apptainer image. It is highly recommended that you adjust the script to your needs before submitting the job:

# HPC login node
/path/to/space_robotics_bench/.docker/hpc/submit.bash [CMD]