Building ROS Development Environment

Here’s how to install ROS Melodic on Ubuntu 18.04:

  1. Set Up Your Sources List:

  • Open a terminal window and add the ROS repository to your sources list:

    sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'

  1. Set Up Your Keys:

  • You need to add the ROS key to ensure the packages are authentic:

    sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://ha.pool.sks-keyservers.net:80 --recv-key C1CF6E31E6BADE8868B172B4F42ED6FBAB17C654

  1. Update Package Index:

  • Update the package index to make the ROS packages available:

    sudo apt update

  1. Install ROS Melodic:

  • Install the ROS desktop-full package. This package includes ROS, rqt, rviz, robot-generic libraries, 2D/3D simulators, navigation, and perception:

    sudo apt install ros-melodic-desktop-full

  1. Initialize rosdep:

  • Before you can use ROS, you need to initialize rosdep. rosdep enables you to easily install system dependencies for ROS packages.

    sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

  1. Environment Setup:

  • To automatically add ROS environment variables to your bash session every time a new shell is launched, add the following line to your ~/.bashrc file:

    echo "source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

  1. Dependencies for Building Packages:

  • To install the dependencies required to build ROS packages, run:

    sudo apt install python-rosinstall python-rosinstall-generator python-wstool build-essential

  • Now, you have successfully installed ROS Melodic on your Ubuntu 18.04 system. You can create a ROS workspace and start working on your robotic projects.

  • Remember to consult the official ROS Melodic installation guide for any updates or additional information.