Robot Operating System on MacOS

Install Xcode from the appstore and xcode commandline tools:

xcode-select --install

Install homebrew

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
brew update
brew doctor

Download ROS

brew tap ros/deps
brew tap osrf/simulation   # Gazebo, sdformat, and ogre
brew tap homebrew/versions # VTK5
brew tap homebrew/science  # others

Setup environment:

mkdir -p ~/Library/Python/2.7/lib/python/site-packages
echo "$(brew --prefix)/lib/python2.7/site-packages" >> ~/Library/Python/2.7/lib/python/site-packages/homebrew.pth
sudo easy_install pip
sudo pip install -U setuptools
sudo pip install -U wstool rosdep rosinstall rosinstall_generator rospkg catkin-pkg Distribute sphinx
sudo pip install -U empy
sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

Things which weren't in the manual

Install XQuartz: http://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/

brew install qt
brew install pyqt
brew install assimp
brew install gazebo

rm -rf src/pcl_msgs
rm -rf src/pcl
rm -rf src/pcl_conversions
rm -rf src/pcl_ros
rm -rf src/perception_pcl

Installation

mkdir ~/ros_catkin_ws
cd ~/ros_catkin_ws
rosinstall_generator desktop --rosdistro indigo --deps --wet-only --tar > indigo-desktop-wet.rosinstall
wstool init -j8 src indigo-desktop-wet.rosinstall
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro indigo -y
./src/catkin/bin/catkin_make_isolated --install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Load setup.bash from .bash_profile:

source ~/ros_catkin_ws/install_isolated/setup.bash

Setup workspace environment

mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/src
catkin_init_workspace

cd ~/catkin_ws/
catkin_make

source devel/setup.bash