Setting up V-REP with ROS

Before starting to work with V-REP, we need to install it in our system and compile the ROS packages needed to establish the communication bridge between ROS and the simulation scene. V-REP is a cross-platform software, available for different operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is developed by Coppelia Robotics GmbH and is distributed with both free educational and commercial licenses. Download the last version of the V-REP simulator from the Coppelia Robotics download page: http://www.coppeliarobotics.com/downloads.html, choosing the Linux version of the V-REP PRO EDU software.

In this chapter, we will refer to the V-REP version v3.4.0. You can download this version, if already available on the website, using the following command in any desired directory:

    $ wget http://coppeliarobotics.com/files/V-REP_PRO_EDU_V3_4_0_Linux.tar.gz

After completing the download, extract the archive:

$ tar -zxvf V-REP_PRO_EDU_V3_4_0_Linux.tar.gz

To easily access...