Future of ROS, Willow Garage, PR2

asked 2014-08-19 19:07:57 -0500

2ROS0

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updated 2014-11-22 17:05:48 -0500

ngrennan
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Hi,

What do pioneers of the ROS Community think about the future of ROS. Could you point me to some good articles or magazine/newspaper interviews on this topic?

What do they make of the end of Willow Garage and the PR2 platform last year? And what does the OSRF and the numerous spinoffs think of the future?

Is there a common goal as for the future of ROS?

Thank you.

PS - Let me know if this question is not appropriate for this forum. I will take it down.

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answered 2014-08-19 20:04:37 -0500

ahendrix

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ROS is alive and well.

OSRF has been the primary maintainer of ROS for over 18 months now, and in that time they're released ROS Hydro and ROS Indigo.

OSRF is currently working on ROS 2.0, which will feature significant improvements, including a better API, masterless operation with improved discovery, and greatly enhanced QoS capabilities.

The ROS developer community is meeting for ROSCon on September 12th and 13th, and I've heard rumors that it's already starting to fill up.

The PR2 platform is not obsolete; it is still supported by Clearpath Robotics and by the PR2 research community.

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Thank you very much for that answer. Is the goal to get ROS in commercial applications in the industry? Or is ROS Industrial a separate effort?

2ROS0 ( 2014-08-19 20:28:57 -0500 )edit

The ROS Industrial consortium is one member of the ROS community, and they're focusing on using ROS to solve new problems with industrial applications. There will be at least two talks related to ROS-Industrial at ROSCon.

ahendrix ( 2014-08-19 20:43:56 -0500 )edit

There are also a number of other commerial robotics applications that are being built using ROS. You may want to read the ROS blog and do some research on the companies that are sponsoring ROSCon this year to get a feel for the places where ROS is already in use.

ahendrix ( 2014-08-19 20:45:47 -0500 )edit

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If you'd like to find out more about the state of ROS, consider attending the upcoming ROSCon or catch the videos which will be posted after the event on the website..

tfoote ( 2014-08-20 02:59:53 -0500 )edit

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answered 2014-10-10 20:31:44 -0500

Ryan

3248 ●20 ●47 ●63 http://www.clearpathro...

Clearpath might not be a spinoff, but we were quite possibly the second company (outside of Willow Garage) to publicly adopt and back ROS.

Our original statement with respect to the "end of Willow Garage" can be found here, and I see nothing that would alter our position since then.

We're seeing a continued uptake of ROS across individuals, students, researchers, and corporations, and Brian Gerkey (CEO of OSRF) spoke on this a little bit in his opening remarks at ROSCon 2014 (skip to ~7:00).

As for the PR2 platform, it's still under heavy use, with some research groups using it ~20(!) hours/day during busy periods. We're also in the process of releasing 230(!!) packages with the Hydro update to the entire community, not to mention servicing and upgrading the physical robots as needed.

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That's great Ryan, thank you!

Ya, I liked the part about yearly releases and LTS for Indigo from Brian Gerkey's opening speech. It's good news.

2ROS0 ( 2014-10-10 20:53:46 -0500 )edit

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