To set up a Raspberry Pi 5 with an iRobot Create3:

iRobot Create3 setup

Set up the iCreate3 Application
Hold both side buttons on the robot to start the hotspot
Connect to the wifi signal starting with “Create”
In your browser, go to 192.168.10.1
Under the update tab, update to the most recent Iron Irwini version (I.0.0 as of this writing).
Go to Application/Configuration and specify rmw_fastrtps_cpp as the RMW.
Click Restart Application from the application window, even if it was already set in that way.

Install Ubuntu on the Raspberry Pi

Go to https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/ and download the Raspberry Pi Imager.
Select Ubuntu 24 from the imager.
Save it to the microUSB, then boot the Raspberry Pi.
In the Raspberry Pi terminal, ensure that the output from locale contains “UTF-8”
Add the ROS2 Repository

# enable ubuntu universe repository 
sudo apt install software-properties-common 
sudo add-apt-repository universe 
# add ROS2 GPG key 
sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl -y 
sudo curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg 
# Add repository to sources list 
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo jammy) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null 

Note: If you get a warning that the public key is not available, run sudo apt-key del followed by the key number given in the message. Then, go back to #add ROS2 GPG key and continue the process.

Install development and ROS tools

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y python3-flake8-docstrings python3-pip python3-pytest-cov ros-dev-tools 
sudo apt install -y python3-flake8-blind-except python3-flake8-builtins python3-flake8-class-newline python3-flake8-comprehensions python3-flake8-deprecated python3-flake8-import-order python3-flake8-quotes python3-pytest-repeat python3-pytest-rerunfailures 

Get ROS2 Code

mkdir -p ~/ros2_iron/src 
cd ~/ros2_iron 
vcs import --input https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros2/ros2/iron/ros2.repos src 

Install dependencies using rosdep (~0.5 hours)

sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo rosdep init 
rosdep update --include-eol-distros
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -y --skip-keys "fastcdr rti-connext-dds-6.0.1 urdfdom_headers" --os=ubuntu:jammy --rosdistro=iron 

Build ROS2 (several hours)

nano ~/.bashrc and ensure that it does not contain source /opt/ros/${ROS_DISTRO}/setup.bash

cd ~/ros2_iron/ 
colcon build --symlink-install 

Install Python Stuff

sudo apt install python3-serial -y
sudo apt install python3-pip -y
mkdir -p ~/ws/src 
cd ~/ws
git clone -b 2.1.0  https://github.com/iRobotEducation/irobot_create_msgs.git src/irobot_create_msgs 
source ~/ros2_iron/install/local_setup.bash  
colcon build 

Update .bashrc

nano ~/.bashrc and add the following lines

export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_fastrtps_cpp 
source ~/ros2_iron/install/local_setup.bash 
source ~/ws/install/local_setup.bash 
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:~/ws/src/irobot_create_msgs 

Note: You can add any other needed directories to PYTHONPATH using colons to separate each directory

Enable SSH

sudo apt update 
sudo apt install openssh-server 
sudo systemctl enable ssh 
sudo systemctl start ssh 

Type hostname -I to find the IP address. Then, you can connect using ssh username@ip address from another computer.

Setup GPIO pins

sudo apt update 
sudo apt install python3-gpiozero 
sudo adduser [username] dialout  

Setup configuration files

nano /boot/firmware/config.txt and add dtoverlay=dwc2,dr_mode=peripheral under the comment # Config settings specific to arm64.

nano /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt and add modules-load=dwc2,g_ether after rootwait

nano /etc/netplan/01-network-manager-all.yaml and add

network: 
  version: 2 
  renderer: NetworkManager 
  ethernets: 
    usb0: 
      dhcp4: false 
      optional: true 
      addresses: [192.168.186.3/24] 