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Installing Dependencies on the Desktop

While most of the d.ASH SDK build is hermetic, some system dependencies on the Desktop are required. This section of the d.ASH SDK documentation provides details for Intel RealSense SDK, Ubuntu, ROS Melodic, and FFmpeg installations.

1.1 Ubuntu Installation

Ubuntu is a complete Linux operating system, which will serve as the primary platform for ROS. Currently, the d.ASH SDK only supports Linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS for development and simulation from your workstation.

Ubuntu Installation via Bootable USB

If you would like to install Ubuntu via a bootable USB, you can do so for both Windows and MacOS.

Ubuntu Installation via Virtual Machine

If you would like to install Ubuntu via a virtual machine, you can do so using VirtualBox to kickstart your installation process.

Once Ubuntu is installed, check that your version of Ubuntu has the release code 18.04. Open the terminal and type the command: 

lsb_release -a
This should print the following result: 
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS
Release:        18.04
Codename:       bionic

1.2 ROS Installation

ROS (Robot Operating System) is a open-source framework that helps researchers and developers build and reuse code between robotics applications. Currently, the d.ASH SDK only supports ROS Melodic for development and simulation from your workstation.

Use Ubuntu to install ROS Melodic onto your computer system. Once ROS has been installed on your Linux system, check that your version of ROS is melodic. Open the terminal and type the command:

rosversion -d

This should print melodic. Otherwise, ensure that you installed the correct version of ROS - ROS Melodic.

1.3 Intel RealSense SDK Installation

Intel RealSense is an RGB camera with channels designed for depth perception capabilities. The RealSense SDK 2.0 provides installation packages for Intel X86 / AMD64-based Debian distributions in dpkg format for Ubuntu 16/18/20 LTS. You'll be able to configure custom settings for any Intel RealSense cameras attached to the system to stream images to remote clients.

Use Ubuntu to install Intel RealSense SDK 2.0 onto your computer system.

1.4 FFmpeg Installation

FFmpeg is an open-source software project consisting of libraries and programs that handle video, audio, and other multimedia files and streams.

To install FFmpeg, run the following commands on your Ubuntu terminal: 

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/ffmpeg-4
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg libavcodec-dev libavdevice-dev libavfilter-dev libavformat-dev libavresample-dev libavutil-dev libpostproc-dev libswresample-dev libswscale-dev libgoogle-glog-dev

1.5 Python Requirements

The d.ASH SDK works with Python 3.7. To properly run the server, you will also need to install a python package installer, pip.

1.5.1 apt-get

Installed in Ubuntu and any Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, apt-get is tool for installing, upgrading, and cleaning packages. To set up the new environment, execute the following command on your Ubuntu terminal: 

sudo apt-get install -y python3.7-dev

1.5.2 Pip Installation

Pip is a package installer for Python. The d.ASH SDK and the third-party packages used by many of its programming examples use pip to install. To install pip, run the following command on your Ubuntu terminal:

sudo apt install python3.7 python3-pip python-pip
python3.7 -m pip instal -- upgrade pip