Install

From apt

CUDA-enabled packages (amd64). They need only the NVIDIA driver, not the CUDA toolkit, and run on the CPU on machines without a usable GPU.

Distro	Ubuntu	NVIDIA driver
Humble	22.04	525+
Jazzy, Kilted	24.04	525+
Lyrical	26.04	580+
Rolling	26.04	580+

Rolling's 26.04 binaries are only in ROS's ros2-testing repository for now, so Rolling needs that apt source (the official ros:rolling images already use it).

sudo curl -fsSL https://polka-ros.github.io/polka.gpg -o /usr/share/keyrings/polka.gpg
echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/polka.gpg] https://polka-ros.github.io $(. /etc/os-release && echo $VERSION_CODENAME) main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/polka.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install ros-${ROS_DISTRO:?source your ROS setup.bash first}-polka

From source

One branch per ROS 2 distro, same code on each:

Distro	Ubuntu	Branch
Humble	22.04	humble
Iron	22.04	iron
Jazzy	24.04	jazzy
Kilted	24.04	kilted
Lyrical	26.04	lyrical
Rolling	26.04	rolling

git clone -b humble https://github.com/Pana1v/polka.git ~/ros2_ws/src/polka
cd ~/ros2_ws && colcon build --packages-select polka
# the CUDA engine is built when nvcc is found; -DWITH_CUDA=OFF forces CPU-only

Quick start

cp config/example_params.yaml config/my_robot.yaml      # edit topics + output_frame_id
ros2 launch polka polka.launch.py config_file:=config/my_robot.yaml

Point output_frame_id at your base frame, list your sensors under source_names, and check that TF resolves every sensor frame_id to output_frame_id. Playing a bag? Pass use_sim_time:=true and play with --clock (see Configuration).