Add GitHub Actions CI with a headless rendering smoke test#880
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Bootstrap GitHub Actions CI for vrx4. A single job builds the workspace in the ros:lyrical-ros-base container with Gazebo Jetty (ros-gz from the ros2-testing repo) and runs a headless smoke test under Xvfb + Mesa software GL: it launches the real production launch, confirms /clock is advancing, and measures the frame rate of an observation camera. The observation camera is test-only and is not part of any shipped world. smoke_test.sh waits for the sim to come up (rclpy /clock detection), spawns the camera into the running world via ros_gz_sim create, and bridges its image just for the duration of the test, so the production world, launch, and bridge config carry no CI scaffolding. Also caches the Gazebo Fuel assets for faster, less network-dependent reruns, adds the checker's test deps to vrx_bringup, and updates the README requirement from ROS 2 Rolling to ROS 2 Lyrical. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Jose Luis Rivero <jrivero@honurobotics.com>
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caguero
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Jun 2, 2026
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This code mostly feels generic. How do you feel about moving it to its own GitHub composite action? The VRX repo will stay cleaner and more projects can benefit from it.
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| # open_water.sdf pulls the Portuguese Ledge tile from Gazebo Fuel on first |
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Nit: I'd remove the concrete references to an sdf world or model, as this might change in the future.
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| #!/usr/bin/env python3 | |||
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Can you include a license header in this file?
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| #!/usr/bin/env bash | |||
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Should we add a license header?
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| #!/usr/bin/env bash | |||
| # Headless smoke test for vrx4: GLX rendering under a virtual X server (Xvfb) | |||
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Nit: I'd remove the reference to the specific branch and Gazebo/ROS versions, in case we change it in the future.
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Add GitHub Actions CI with a headless rendering smoke test
Bootstraps continuous integration for
vrx4. There was no CI before; this builds the workspace and verifies the simulation actually comes up and renders on every push and PR.CI workflow (
.github/workflows/ci.yml)A single
smokejob that runs onpush,pull_requestagainstvrx4, andworkflow_dispatch:ros:lyrical-ros-basecontainer.ros-gzpackages (ros-lyrical-ros-gz-sim,ros-lyrical-ros-gz-bridge) from theros2-testingrepo, then resolves the remaining workspace deps withrosdep.colcon build --merge-install, and explicitly asserts thatvrx_bringupwas installed (colcon exits 0 even when it builds nothing)./github/home/.gz/fuelto match the containerHOME).Headless smoke test (
tools/smoke_test.sh+tools/check_render.py)Exercises the real production launch (
vrx_bringup simulation.launch.xml,gazebo_gui:=false) under a virtual X server (Xvfb) with Mesa software GL (llvmpipe), so rendering is validated without a GPU. The flow:/clockdetection (check_render.py --wait-only)./clockis advancing (physics is stepping, not paused) and the camera is publishing frames — reporting the achieved frame rate.It isolates its ROS graph per run, fails fast on launch crashes, and dumps the launch log on any failure.
Test-only observation camera
The observation camera is deliberately not part of any shipped world. It lives in
tools/observation_camera.sdfand is spawned into the running sim at test time viaros_gz_sim create(the world already loads the Sensors system, so it renders). The production world, launch file, and bridge config carry no CI scaffolding.Verification
Green end-to-end in CI. The smoke step confirms the runtime-spawned camera renders under software GL: