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Version: 2026

💻 Local Machine Setup

For this course, you will need a Mac or Ubuntu (GNU/Linux) machine.

note

If you are using Windows, you can run Ubuntu inside Windows thanks to WSL.

You can install WSL by running the following command in a Windows PowerShell terminal:

wsl --install -d Ubuntu-24.04

Package Manager​

First, let's get a package manager to help install the software that will be needed.

macOS doesn't come with a package manager by default, so we will install Homebrew.

Open a terminal and run the following command:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Once Homebrew is installed, you can install software by running:

brew install <package-name>

Shell​

A shell is a program that takes commands from the keyboard and gives them to the operating system to perform. In the old days, it was the only user interface available on a Unix-like system such as Linux. Nowadays, we have graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in addition to command line interfaces (CLIs) such as the shell.

To open a shell, you can use the following keyboard shortcut:

  • Mac: Cmd + Space and type Terminal
  • Linux: Ctrl + Alt + T

BASH​

bash is a Unix shell and command language written by Brian Fox for the GNU Project as a free software replacement for the Bourne shell. First released in 1989, it has been used widely as the default login shell for most Linux distributions and Apple's macOS Mojave and earlier versions.

We will not go into the details of bash here, but you can find more information on the Wikipedia page.

While we will not be using bash as our default shell, it is still a good idea to know how to use it. Furthermore, many of the commands we will be using in this course are written for bash.

ZSH​

zsh is a Unix shell that can be used as an interactive login shell and as a command interpreter for shell scripting. Zsh is an extended Bourne shell with a large number of improvements, including some features of Bash, ksh, and tcsh.

We will be using zsh as our default shell in this course.

Install​

brew install zsh

Set as default shell​

Set zsh as default shell:

chsh -s $(which zsh)

Oh-My-Zsh​

Oh-My-Zsh is an open source, community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration (and it comes with a bunch of plugins and themes).

Install​
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

.zshrc​

The .zshrc file is a script that is executed each time a new zsh shell is started. It is located in your home directory (~/.zshrc).

You can edit the .zshrc file with your favorite text editor.

We will be adding some configuration to the .zshrc file in the next sections.

Git​

Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

A version control system (VCS) allows you to track the history of a collection of files. It supports creating different versions of this collection. Each version captures a snapshot of the files at a certain point in time and the VCS allows you to switch between these versions.

Check out the Git documentation for more information.

To check if you have Git installed, open a shell and run the following command:

git --version
note

If you don't have Git installed, you can install it with your package manager

Visual Studio Code​

Visual Studio Code is a free source-code editor made by Microsoft for Windows, Linux and macOS. Features include support for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, code refactoring, and embedded Git.

We will be using Visual Studio Code as our code editor.

To install it, run:

brew install --cask visual-studio-code

It is a good idea to install the following extensions for Visual Studio Code. These extensions will make your life easier when working on the assignments.

Extensions​

Open Visual Studio Code and click on the Extensions icon in the sidebar.

Live Share​

This extension allows you to share your code with others and collaborate in real time.

Remote Dev​

This extension allows you to develop inside a container, on a remote machine, or in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Python​

This extension adds support for Python to Visual Studio Code.

Jupyter​

This extension adds support for Jupyter notebooks to Visual Studio Code.

Python​

Python is an interpreted, high-level and general-purpose programming language. Python's design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant indentation. Python is a popular programming language that is used for many different things: from web development to data science.

We will be using it as the main programming language.

Python 3 is the latest version of Python. It should be installed by default on macOS and Ubuntu.

To check if you have Python 3 installed, run:

python3 --version

Virtual Environments, Virtualenvwrapper, and Pip​

Virtual environments are a way to create isolated Python environments for different Python projects. In this course, we will be using virtualenvwrapper to manage our virtual environments.

Pip is a package manager for Python packages, or modules if you like. So let's install pip and virtualenvwrapper using the OS package manager.

brew install pip  # this will install pip
pip install --user virtualenv virtualenvwrapper

.zshrc​

We will be adding some configuration to the .zshrc file.

Open the .zshrc file using your preferred text editor.

code ~/.zshrc
tip

If the code command is not recognized in your terminal, you can enable it by opening Visual Studio Code, pressing Cmd + Shift + P (on macOS) or Ctrl + Shift + P (on Windows/Linux), typing Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH, and pressing Enter.

Once the .zshrc file is open, add the following lines at the end:

# Python
export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/.virtualenvs
export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin
source virtualenvwrapper.sh

Assigning a Static IP for your Local Machine to connect to the Raspberry Pi​

warning

If you are using Windows and WSL, then for this section only, follow the Windows tab rather than the Ubuntu tab.

Open System Settings > Network.

Select the network interface for the Raspberry Pi (likely called RNDIS/Ethernet Gadget).

info

If you are unsure which interface this is, disconnect the RPi from your laptop. This will remove the interface from the list. Reconnect the RPi to your laptop and the interface should appear again.

With the correct interface selected, click Details....

Under the TCP/IP tab, set the Configure IPv4 dropdown to Manually.

Enter the following

  • IPv4 Address : 192.168.3.1
  • Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Click OK to save the settings.

QGroundControl Installation and Setup​

QGroundControl (QGC) is ground control station software that serves as the graphical user interface to view the camera and control the ROV.

note

Download the latest recommended version from the link below based on your operating system and install it on your computer.

Network Setup​

When you are done with the installation process, follow the following steps below based on your operating system:

  1. Go to System Preferences > Network
  2. Select USB 10/100 LAN
  3. Set Configure IPv4 to Manually
  4. Set:
    • IP Address: 192.168.2.1
    • Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 macOS Network Settings

Connecting the BlueROV2 to QGroundControl​

  1. When the BlueROV2 is connected to your Linkbox and powered on, start the QGroundControl application.
  2. Wait a few seconds for the ROV to auto-connect and for the green parameters bar to finish loading from left to right.
note

If this is the first time setting up the ROV, you will receive a message that additional setup is required.