Background

ROS is an open-source project that provides a common framework for robotics applications. ROS is being heavily utilized by the research community for service robotics applications, but its technology can be applied to other application areas, including industrial robotics. ROS capabilities, such as advanced perception and path/grasp planning, can enable industrial robotic applications that were previously technically infeasible or cost prohibitive.

SwRI has already utilized ROS for several industrial and advanced manufacturing projects. Its use has enabled rapid development and reduced costs.

The ROS-Industrial™ program:

• Is supported by a community of industrial robotics researchers and professionals.
• Provides a one stop location for industrial related ROS software.
• Possesses software robustness and reliability that meets the needs of industrial applications.
• Does not replace any one technology entirely, rather it combines the relative strengths of ROS and existing technology (i.e. combining ROS high-level functionality with the low-level reliability and safety of an industrial robot controller).
• Stimulates the development of hardware agnostic software by standardizing interfaces.
• Provides an "easy" path to apply cutting edge research to industrial applications by using a common ROS architecture.
• Provides simple, easy to use, well documented APIs.

ROS Industrial Benefits

The development of the ROS Industrial stack has several benefits including:

• Leveraging powerful functionality within ROS
  • Custom inverse kinematics for manipulators, including solutions for >6 DOF manipulators.
  • Advanced 2-D (image) and 3-D (point cloud) perception systems.
  • Rich toolset for development, simulation, and visualization.
• Enabling new applications
  • Unstructured dynamic applications that include advanced perception for identifying robot work pieces as opposed to hard tooling.
  • Completely dynamic path planning based upon advanced perception and models as opposed to simply replaying taught paths.
  • Perception-based path planning and closed-loop feedback.
• Simplifying robot programming to the task level
  • Eliminating path planning and teaching.  Collision free, optimal paths are automatically calculated given path end points.
  • Applying abstract programming principles to similar tasks (useful in low-volume applications or with slight variations in work pieces).
• Reducing costs
  •  Open-source software used and supported by the community.  Preferred open-source licenses (i.e. BSD license) allow commercial use without restrictions.
  • Reducing manufacturer "lock-in" by standardizing robot and sensor interfaces across many industrial platforms.

Open-Source Resources

• The ROS-Industrial Open-Source Software Web page provides installation instructions and tutorials on ROS-Industrial.
• The ROS-Industrial Consortium web page has information for partners who would like to be involved in the continued development of ROS-Industrial. The page also has information about the specific benefits enjoyed by consortium members.
• The ROS Software Web page provides detailed information on the ROS software on which ROS-Industrial is based.
• BSD-license

05/01/13