5.1.1. Repositories

For ROS users, we recommend to use vcs to retrieve all the repositories used by the dVRK software stack. vcs allows users to manage a set of repositories. The source of all packages based on the cisst/SAW libraries can be downloaded using vcs. Generic compilation instructions and vcs files can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/jhu-saw/vcs.

The following sections include the vcs command lines specific to the dVRK for both ROS 1 and ROS 2.

All the code for the dVRK is compatible with ROS 1 and ROS 2.

Note

The main repository for the dVRK software stack is sawIntuitiveResearchKit. This follows the naming convention used for all cisst/SAW components, i.e. <manufacturer><product>. This is quite a long name and the acronym is not great: IRK. Hence the name dVRK.