I know what you might be thinking.
Did we really need a new version of Ross?
Didn't you just explain that the first version of Ross is amazing and helped us to solve all the problems
of robotics, So why bother developing a new, different version of Ross?
The answer is complex, but can be summed up in one sentence The Ross one developers had no idea and
couldn't even imagine all the things that the community, the companies and the university will do with
Ross.
The development was initially intended for a single robot, the PR2, developed by Willow Garage, and
it was soon realised that Ross could be useful for many other robotics applications.
Over the years, Ross has been used for mobile robots, manipulators, humanoid robots, astronaut robots,
robotic dogs, drones, and much more.
Well, this is a great accomplishment and the culmination of the Euros project creating an universal
operating system for robots.
It has also revealed some limitations and some shortcomings.
It is important to remember that the development of Ros began back in 2007, and the technology was
quite different than wireless networks were not yet widespread.
And Ros was designed to work on wired networks or generally with reliable and stable connections such
as those you found in research laboratories.
Things have changed.
Wireless connections are now predominant, and robots, like everything else, are constantly connected
to networks and to the Internet.
In some cases, the connection can be unreliable, such as in certain factories or in certain area of
our homes, where it's simply impossible to guarantee the same reliability as a wired connection.
While Ross helped to speed up the development of individual robots, soon we set more ambitious goals
such as managing fleets of robots.
This led to new and diverse applications and uses of Ross that not only manage a single robot but also
connect it to other robots, enabling collaboration between multiple robots to complete a single task.
Another field where Ross was used is serial communication with microcontrollers and electronic hardware
devices for sensor reading or sending comments to motors, among other tasks.
When we move from simulated environment to building real robots, dealing with these devices becomes
essential for keeping the robot with the ability to modify and interact with the surrounding environment.
It is also crucial to receive data from these devices so that the robot can understand and reconstruct
the world around it.
Moreover, robots have soon left the safe and controlled environment of research laboratories and have
entered our homes and industries.
This highlighted another aspect, that is the communication security.
It became necessary to ensure that communications between robots and between the robots communication
and the Internet were secure enough guaranteeing the communication privacy.
The robot safety and preventing tampering.
Furthermore, Ros is being used to build increasingly complex robots in which time constraints are crucial
for proper functioning.
This is the case for robot control, with a particular consideration for legged robots like dogs and
humanoids.
In these systems there are strict timing constraints and it is essential that the calculation and the
operation are performed in real time with guaranteed maximum response times.
All these applications were not initially considered during the development of Ros, which is why they
are not supported.
Over the years anyway, many companies and research organizations have developed their custom solutions
and alternative approaches that expand the capabilities of Ros and try to overcome its limitations.
Russia emerges from this awareness, drawing on ten years of experience gained from using and encountering
the limitations of Rose, one aiming to satisfy the new unforeseen demands and applications from the
robotics community.