This is a flight simulator for multirotors, VTOL and fixed wing.

Follow instructions on the official site to install Gazebo. Mac OS users should install Gazebo 7, Linux users Gazebo 6. Failing to install the right version can render the simulation inoperational.

Install the protobuf library, which is used as interface to Gazebo.

sudo apt-get install libprotobuf-dev libprotoc-dev protobuf-compiler libeigen3-dev libgazebo6-dev

brew install graphviz sdformat3 protobuf eigen opencv
brew install gazebo7

Clone the gazebo plugins repository to your computer. IMPORTANT: If you do not clone to ~/src/sitl_gazebo, all remaining paths in these instructions will need to be adjusted.

mkdir -p ~/src
cd src
git clone https://github.com/PX4/sitl_gazebo.git

Create a build folder in the top level of your repository:

mkdir Build

Next add the location of this build directory to your gazebo plugin path, e.g. add the following line to your .bashrc (Linux) or .bash_profile (Mac) file:

# Set the plugin path so Gazebo finds our model and sim
export GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH=${GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH}:$HOME/src/sitl_gazebo/Build
# Set the model path so Gazebo finds the airframes
export GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH=${GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH}:$HOME/src/sitl_gazebo/models
# Disable online model lookup since this is quite experimental and unstable
export GAZEBO_MODEL_DATABASE_URI=""

You also need to add the the root location of this repository, e.g. add the following line to your .bashrc (Linux) or .bash_profile (Mac) file:

# Set path to sitl_gazebo repository
export SITL_GAZEBO_PATH=$HOME/src/sitl_gazebo

Navigate into the build directory and invoke CMake from it:

cd ~/src/sitl_gazebo
cd Build
cmake ..

Autogenerate the sdf file with the command

make sdf

Now build the gazebo plugins by typing:

make

Gazebo will now launch when typing 'gazebo' on the shell:

gazebo

Start the PX4 SITL executable as documented in the PX4 SITL documentation. Then insert the IRIS model from the insert tab. This should trigger the communication with the PX4 SITL app.