ROS-Industrial: A worldwide initiative for Open Source industrial robotics

Advancements in the disciplines underpinning robotics allow for a new set of problems to be solved through robotic implements, as they enable the shift from preprogrammed motions triggered by simple inputs, to trajectories dynamically generated from rich perception data. This shift can lead to a disruption in the robotics market, and together with the fact that most new features are software-centric, it calls for a rethink of how the robotics and automation industry considers software and its development process. Open-Source Software can be a viable option in this sense, as it has been demonstrated by Linux and its derivation Android respectively in the IT and smartphone markets. ROS-Industrial is an initiative, and an accompanying set of libraries built on top of the Robot Operating System (ROS), to ease the adoption of Open-Source Software in manufacturing environments. The initiative is now 5 years old and has worldwide presence, with two Consortia already well-established in North America and Europe, and increasing following in the Asia-Pacific region. Among its goals are: the support of Open-Source Software from hardware manufacturers; the synergy between the technical roadmaps of developer communities and commercial entities; the steering of public funding towards the development of Open-Source infrastructure.