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Version: 8

Quick Start Install

Welcome to the world's most powerful platform for robot arm manipulation!

note

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

Supported Operating Systems​

MoveIt Pro runs on Ubuntu natively, which we recommend for the best experience using MoveIt Pro. We also support running on macOS in a virtual machine (we recommend Parallels), with specific considerations documented throughout this guide. Using WSL on Windows is not recommended or supported at this time. For the full system requirements see the MoveIt Pro Tech Specs.

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. Choose your computer's operating system:

Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 is our recommended version of Ubuntu, though we also support Ubuntu 22.04.

Dependencies Setup​

Docker Setup​

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 affect 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 (Only if you have NVIDIA GPUs)​

While MoveIt Pro works with any type of GPU, the NVIDIA Container Toolkit​ is required for computers that have NVIDIA-based GPUs. If you do not have an NVIDIA GPU the rest of the MoveIt Pro deterministic algorithms and capabilities will still work, but some ML-based examples may perform worse or not at all.

Install the nvidia-container-toolkit.

For more information, or to verify that the toolkit is installed properly, see our detailed how-to guide Configuring NVIDIA GPUs

Install and Run MoveIt Pro​

To install, run in a terminal:

sudo apt install curl
curl -Lo /tmp/moveit-pro-8.6.0-any.deb https://github.com/PickNikRobotics/moveit_pro_deb/raw/main/picknik/moveit-pro-8.6.0-any.deb
sudo apt install /tmp/moveit-pro-8.6.0-any.deb
moveit_pro run

When you run MoveIt Pro for the first time, it will have several setup prompts. As part of the quick start, we suggest you follow all the recommended settings (Y).

MoveIt Pro will download and build the necessary Docker images and user workspace. This requires a ~2 GB download the first time, and will take a few minutes to complete depending on your internet speed. 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​

tip

Advanced: If you have an existing MoveIt Pro user workspace and robot config, you can set that instead of our example workspace. See the documentation on moveit_pro configure to learn more about this and other command line interface (CLI) options. You can also explore moveit_pro --help for more info.

The last configuration step in the terminal should have you choose the robot configuration package. We recommend you choose lab_sim as that package contains our most comprehensive set of example applications, and will load an example UR5e robot on a linear rail.

MoveIt Pro Bringup​

After the configuration and download is complete, MoveIt Pro should start automatically in your browser.

The MoveIt Pro Runtime should load in the background, and the MoveIt Pro Developer Platform user interface should launch in your default browser.

You should see the following:

Start An Example Application​

To quickly see an example application (an "Objective") click the Run button on the Pick April Tag Labeled Object Objective under the Application - Advanced Examples section of the Objectives sidebar on the left. You should then see the robot executing a simple pick and place motion:

tip

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

You can also run the MoveIt Pro Runtime in "headless mode" for to be used with our Websocket APIs to enable you to programmatically integrate our runtime autonomy with your software application and company-specific graphical UIs. Our developer UI is optional!

moveit_pro run --headless

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

moveit_pro rviz

Explore other example robot configs​

MoveIt Pro ships with 6+ example “robot configs” that you can explore, downloaded from the source-available moveit_pro_example_ws Github repo. These example worlds serve as reference applications and examples you can use for creating your own robotics applications. Check out the launch commands below:

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

tip

If you don't want MoveIt Pro to keep launching new tabs in your web browser, you can ask it to skip that step using moveit_pro run --no-browser. Note: you will have to manually refresh your browser tab every time you do a full restart of MoveIt Pro.

Click on the Next button below to continue through the getting started tutorials, though we will go through these live with you during our monthly training courses so you may want to hold off.