Docker Labs

Welcome to the Docker Labs section! These labs will teach you how to use Docker containers for robotics development with Mini Pupper.

Overview

Docker provides a consistent development environment that ensures dependencies remain stable across different systems. This is particularly useful for ROS2 development where version compatibility is crucial.

Labs

Lab	Topic	Description
Lab 1	Docker Fundamentals	Learn Docker basics: pulling images, running containers, exec vs run, Docker Compose
Lab 2	ROS2 in Docker	Run ROS2 nodes in Docker containers on Mini Pupper
Lab 3	AWS Greengrass	Deploy Docker containers via AWS IoT Greengrass, S3, and ECR

Prerequisites

Basic Linux command line knowledge
Mini Pupper with Ubuntu installed
Docker installed on your system

Why Use Docker for Robotics?

Advantages

Consistent Environment: No need to worry about software updates breaking dependencies
Reproducibility: Same container runs identically on different machines
Isolation: Keep different projects with different dependencies separate
Easy Deployment: Ship your entire environment as a container image

Disadvantages

Need to build/compile images
Docker images can be large files
Slight performance overhead

Getting Started

Start with Lab 1 to learn Docker fundamentals before moving to ROS2-specific containers.