Robot Operating System (ROS)

Main article: Operating systems for robots

Robot Operating System (ROS) is an open source bundling software (middleware) developed by Willow Garage and the Artificial Intelligence LaboratoryStanford University. ROS is a set of libraries and tools that provides low-level management of robotic equipment, hardware abstraction and other services.

2018: OS Announcement

In early October 2018, Microsoft announced an operating system for robots. We are talking about the version of Robot Operating System (ROS) for Windows, which was presented at the conference in Madrid.

Previously, the developer community ported ROS to WIndows, launching the Core ROS project. Microsoft has now built an official version of ROS for Windows 10. The first version of the new OS was called ROS1. It is seamlessly integrated with the Visual Studio development environment and features such as Windows Machine Learning (ML) hardware acceleration, computer vision, and Azure Cognitive Services and Azure IoT Suite cloud services.

Microsoft announced Windows for robots

At ROSCon 2018, Microsoft demonstrated the Robotis Turtlebot 3 robot using a ROS release called Melodic Morenia. The robot runs Windows 10 IoT Enterprise on an Intel Coffee Lake NUC computer and uses a new ROS node that uses Windows Machine Learning with hardware acceleration. Using computer vision, the robot was able to recognize a person and approach him.

The company also showed the operation of the ROS modeling environment in the Azure cloud and many robots operating in a virtual world connected to the orchestration system and controlled by the Azure IoT Hub.

In addition to the Windows-optimized version of ROS, Microsoft is working with Open Robotics and the ROS Industrial Consortium to "expand the capabilities" of the operating system for production, "improve productivity and return on investment" in industrial robots.

Humans have always been fascinated by robots. Today, advanced robots complement our lives, both at work and at home, says senior Windows IoT developer Lou Amadio. - Since robots have reached a high level of technical development, development tools were needed. We see AI robotics as universally available technology to improve human abilities, and this development will bring the manageability and security of Windows 10 IoT Enterprise to the innovative ROS ecosystem.

Thanks to warehouse robots, it became possible to deliver online purchases the day after ordering, and robot vacuum cleaners saved pet owners from the hassle of cleaning floors from wool on a daily basis, the programmer said.

By early October 2018, files and documentation for the ROS1 are available. Microsoft promises to release the same for ROS2 "in the near future," according to a statement from the software giant on September 28.

In developing this project, Microsoft is pursuing the goal of bringing the "intelligent edge of the network to robots" used at home for education, industry and commercial purposes.

Windows ML has APIs for adding artificial intelligence elements to devices at the edge of the network. This platform implements tools with hardware acceleration of evaluation of machine learning models on devices with Windows 10, with which developers can use machine learning in Windows applications. ^[1]

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