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Version: 10

Install MoveIt Pro

Application Platform

From a fresh terminal to a moving robot simulation.

Legal

A license key is required to run the MoveIt Pro Application Platform; if you do not already have one emailed to you, please contact us for more information. By downloading the MoveIt Pro Application Platform software you are agreeing to the Terms and Conditions and acknowledging our Privacy Policy.

Product Family Overview​

MoveIt Pro is the Application Platform: the Desktop App you work in, the Runtime that executes on the robot, and Core underneath it. The Desktop App connects to a Runtime rather than containing one, and each product has differing hardware and software requirements.

MoveIt Pro Desktop AppMoveIt Pro RuntimeMoveIt Pro Core
MoveIt Pro Desktop AppMoveIt Pro RuntimeMoveIt Pro Core
  • UI for visualizing, debugging, and modifying robot systems and skills.
  • Preview motions, monitor limits, and edit planning scene.
  • Collect robot training data.
  • Supervise and teleoperate robots.
  • Build and debug Behavior Trees.
  • Real-time libraries embedded on the deployed robot.
  • Optionally includes the high-fidelity physics simulator; without it, runs on lower-spec hardware.
  • For production deployment.
  • Real-time controllers.
  • Inverse kinematics solvers.
  • Planners.
  • Minimum dependencies.

System Requirements​

The MoveIt Pro Desktop App ships installers for Linux today, with macOS and Windows coming in 10.1.0, and asks little of the computer it runs on. The MoveIt Pro Runtime is the demanding half, especially with simulation enabled, and is not intended for older or consumer-grade computers.

See MoveIt Pro Technical Specifications for the full computer requirements, with and without simulation.

Installation​

Install two components:

  1. Download and install the MoveIt Pro Desktop App for the operating system of the computer you will work from:

    Desktop app installers are published for download starting with MoveIt Pro 10.0.

  2. Install the MoveIt Pro Runtime on the computer that will control the robot. Choose that Runtime host's operating system below.

MoveIt Pro 10.0 requires the desktop app and Runtime to use the same release. The desktop app does not update automatically, so install new releases manually. You can keep multiple app releases installed when your Runtimes use different versions. See Connect with the MoveIt Pro Desktop App for remote, multi-Runtime, and multi-version connections.

Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 is the recommended host operating system for the MoveIt Pro Runtime. Ubuntu 26.04 is also supported as a host operating system. Current MoveIt Pro containers run Ubuntu 24.04 with ROS 2 Jazzy.

Docker Setup

MoveIt Pro uses Docker to avoid installing ROS or MoveIt on your host machine, and will not affect any existing ROS workspaces or configurations you may have. Check if you already have Docker by running in a terminal:

docker run hello-world
If Docker is already installed, click here.
warning

We do not currently support Docker Desktop due to its separate network stack.

Make sure that your Docker version is from Docker's Apt repositories - the versions from Canonical are very old. You can check this by running

apt-cache policy docker-compose-plugin

and making sure that the installed version (marked with ***) is from https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu, not a domain under ubuntu.com.

If Docker is not installed, click here.

We recommend two ways to install Docker:

Easiest

Simply copy paste the below commands into your terminal:

sudo apt-get install curl
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
sg docker "newgrp $(id -gn)"

More Advanced Follow Docker's official documentation:

  1. Docker's convenience script
  2. Docker's post-installation steps to ensure you can run without sudo privileges.

Finally

To ensure permissions settings take effect for all terminal sessions, log out and back in to your computer.

Finally, verify that you can run Docker commands without sudo.

docker run hello-world

NVIDIA Setup

Configure NVIDIA GPUs (only if you have an NVIDIA GPU)

The NVIDIA Container Toolkit is required for MoveIt Pro to use an NVIDIA GPU. On CPU-only hosts, MoveIt Pro's deterministic algorithms still work, but ML examples run much more slowly. AMD hosts instead require the AMD Container Toolkit described in the Ubuntu installation tab and the detailed GPU configuration guide.

Install the nvidia-container-toolkit.

For more information, or to verify that the toolkit is installed properly, see Configure GPU Acceleration.

AMD Setup

Configure AMD GPUs (only if you have an AMD GPU)

The AMD Container Toolkit is required for MoveIt Pro 10.0 to use an AMD GPU on a supported amd64 host. You do not need to install ROCm on the host because the MoveIt Pro Runtime image includes the required ROCm libraries. If the CLI detects AMD hardware without amd-container-runtime, it stops with installation guidance; configure the toolkit before continuing.

Confirm that your host meets the AMD Container Toolkit requirements, then install the toolkit by following AMD's Quick Start Guide. Configure the Docker runtime and generate its Container Device Interface (CDI) specification:

sudo amd-ctk runtime configure
sudo mkdir -p /etc/cdi
sudo amd-ctk cdi generate
sudo systemctl restart docker
sudo amd-ctk cdi validate

On an amd64 host, verify the installation before starting MoveIt Pro:

docker run --rm --runtime=amd \
  -e AMD_VISIBLE_DEVICES=all \
  rocm/rocm-terminal rocm-smi

For more information, see Configure GPU Acceleration.

Install MoveIt Pro Runtime

To install, run in a terminal:

sudo apt install curl
curl -fLo /tmp/moveit-pro-9.4.1-any.deb https://download.picknik.ai/moveit-pro/moveit-pro-9.4.1-any.deb
sudo apt install /tmp/moveit-pro-9.4.1-any.deb
moveit_pro run

For the full system requirements see also the MoveIt Pro Tech Specs.

First Run​

Frontend key​

The MoveIt Pro CLI automatically creates and securely stores a unique frontend key for the Runtime. You do not need to create or export one before the first launch.

If the desktop app asks for the key, run this command on the Runtime computer:

moveit_pro frontend-key

Copy the displayed value into the desktop app.

The desktop app checks the Runtime's TLS certificate automatically during setup; normal desktop users do not need to install or approve a certificate. See Endpoint Security for key rotation, custom certificates, and direct-client setup.

When you run MoveIt Pro for the first time, it presents several setup prompts. For this quick start, accept the recommended settings by entering Y.

MoveIt Pro then downloads and builds the required Docker images and user workspace. Keep the terminal open until the Runtime reports that it is ready. Go get a coffee or tea ☕.

Experiencing issues installing or running MoveIt Pro?

You can use moveit_pro run -v to see more verbose output, which can be helpful for debugging if for some reasons things don't work right away for you.

For other issues, questions, or feedback:

Choosing a robot configuration package​

The last configuration step in the terminal should have you choose the robot configuration package. We recommend you choose hangar_sim as the first reference application to explore, as it demonstrates a full mobile manipulation robot using a UR5e robot arm on a Clearpath Ridgeback wheeled base.

Advanced

If you have an existing MoveIt Pro user workspace and robot config, you can set that instead of the default example workspace using the command:

moveit_pro configure --config-package my_config_package --user-workspace path/to/workspace

See the documentation on Advanced Run Commands to learn more. You can also explore moveit_pro --help for more info.

MoveIt Pro Bringup​

Keep the Runtime terminal open, then follow Connect with the MoveIt Pro Desktop App to connect to the running Runtime.

After connecting, you should see the following:

hangar_sim

Start An Example Application​

To quickly see an example application (an "Objective") click the Run button on the Plan Path Along Surface Objective under the Training Examples section of the Objectives sidebar on the left. You should then see the robot drive to the side of the airplane body, scan it, and then begin a basic spraying operation. It also demonstrates whole body control - coordinating the arm with the wheels simultaneously.

Plan Path Along Surface

tip

Code when you need it, UI when you don’t.

You can also use our Programmatic SDKs to integrate the MoveIt Pro Runtime with your software application or company-specific graphical UI. The desktop app is optional.

Additionally, you can visualize your robot through other tools like RViz, Foxglove, or Rerun:

moveit_pro rviz

Explore other example robot configs​

MoveIt Pro ships with more than eight example robot configuration packages that you can explore as reference applications. The source code is automatically downloaded from the moveit_pro_example_ws GitHub repository and is available locally at ~/moveit_pro/moveit_pro_example_ws. These example worlds serve as a starting point you can use for configuring and creating your own robotics applications:

lab_sim

Single arm on linear rail in laboratory environment.

moveit_pro run -c lab_sim

hangar_sim

Mobile manipulator moving cargo boxes in an airplane hangar.

moveit_pro run -c hangar_sim

grinding_sim

Engine block machining example with PushCorp end effector on UR10e.

moveit_pro run -c grinding_sim

space_satellite_sim

Client and servicer space vehicles performing grappling operation.

moveit_pro run -c space_satellite_sim

factory_sim

Tool changing and bin picking example for fixed-base industrial arm.

moveit_pro run -c factory_sim

mock_sim

Machine tending demonstration, without high fidelity simulator.

moveit_pro run -c mock_sim

kitchen_sim

ML models demonstration with a Franka arm.

moveit_pro run -c kitchen_sim

dual_arm_sim

Cartesian writing and wiping demonstration with dual Franka arms.

moveit_pro run -c dual_arm_sim

Click on the Next button below to continue through the four getting started tutorials.