How did I install the COCO API for TensorFlow in Ubuntu 18.04?

Step 1

apt install python-setuptools

It fixes the problem «No module named setuptools».

Step 2

How to make Python 3 the default Python version on Ubuntu 18.04?

Step 3

pip install cython

It fixes the problem «pycocotools/_mask.c: No such file or directory».

Step 4

mkdir /usr/local/coco
cd /usr/local/coco
git clone https://github.com/cocodataset/cocoapi.git .
cd PythonAPI
make

Step 5

cp -r pycocotools <path to `tensorflow/models`>/research/

github.com/tensorflow/models/blob/v1.13.0/research/object_detection/g3doc/installation.md#coco-api-installation