Hi everyone!

 

We're pleased to announce that a new version of micROS RT, an implementation
of ROS 1.x on DDS, is available to download. Its source code is also
available now. 

 

micROS RT (micROS Real-Time) is a modified ROS 1.x C++ kernel which adopts
OMG's DDS (Data Distribution Systems for Realtime Systems) as its underlying
message transfer protocol. It aims at providing scalable, robust and
QoS-assuring message delivery capability while keeping compatibility with
ROS 1.x programming paradigms.

 

The features of micROS RT include:

(1)     Built-in multicast support. Significant performance advantage can be
obtained when there are n subscribers in a ROS topic (n>=2).

(2)     Robustness in some adverse network environment. As a mature and
industry-level product, DDS is expected to be more robust in some adverse
network environment.

(3)     QoS assurance in the message delivery process. For example, you can
set the transport priority and latency budget of messages on a ROS topic. It
is useful in some real-time settings involving multi nodes/robots.

(4)     Existing ROS programs can easily benefit. No modification is needed
and the only thing you should do is to replace a library file in the ROS
installation path.

(5)     Interoperable with the official ROS kernel. micROS RT can smartly
choose the underlying message delivery protocol in virtue of the protocol
negotiation mechanism.

 

In contrast with the early prototype we released three weeks
ago(http://lists.ros.org/pipermail/ros-users/2014-September/068884.html),
this version provide complete message QoS setting APIs. And some preliminary
tests have been performed.

The binary package, source code, the user's guide and more information can
be found at http://cyberdb.github.io/micROS-RT/. We would be grateful if you
can try it out and any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

Bo Ding

 

----

Dr. Bo Ding

micROS team, NUDT, China