The library itself is independent of ROS, so it is built outside ROS catkin. There are wrappers for ROS (https://github.com/strands-project/v4r_ros_wrappers), which can then be placed inside the normal catkin workspace.

Dependencies:

stated in `package.xml <https://github.com/strands-project/v4r/blob/master/package.xml>`__ There are two options to use the SIFT recognizer: - Use V4R third party library SIFT GPU (this requires a decent GPU - see www.cs.unc.edu/~ccwu/siftgpu) [default] - Use OpenCV non-free SIFT implementation (this requires the non-free module of OpenCV - can be installed from source). This option is enabled if BUILD_SIFTGPU is disabled in cmake.

Installation:

In order to use V4R in ROS, use the v4r_ros_wrappers.

From Ubuntu Package

simply install sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-v4r after enabling the STRANDS repositories.

From Source

cd ~/somewhere
git clone 'https://rgit.acin.tuwien.ac.at/root/v4r.git'
cd v4r
./setup.sh
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install (optional)

Original page: https://github.com/strands-project/v4r/blob/master/Readme.md