[ros-users] Enterprise Version of ROS

[Edwards, Shaun M.]

Adolfo,

Thanks for your interest.  I think you are correct that we could only hope to certify every couple of actual ROS revisions.  Our customers would probably be willing to give up the latest and greatest functionality for certification.

Shaun Edwards
Senior Research Engineer
Manufacturing System Department


http://robotics.swri.org
http://rosindustrial.swri.org/
http://ros.swri.org<http://ros.swri.org/>
Southwest Research Institute
210-522-3277

From: ros-users-bounces at code.ros.org [mailto:ros-users-bounces at code.ros.org] On Behalf Of Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 12:13 PM
To: User discussions
Subject: Re: [ros-users] Enterprise Version of ROS


On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 5:07 AM, Edwards, Shaun M. <sedwards at swri.org<mailto:sedwards at swri.org>> wrote:
All,

We have been using ROS for some time now.  Projects that originally started as research are now maturing to the point where they need to be deployed.  As we have started moving ROS from research applications to real world applications  it is becoming very clear that stability, safety, and reliability are of chief concerns to our customers.  For early adopters, we can alleviate these issues by standing behind the software as a whole, including ROS.  After all, sometimes it is easier to support an open software solution than it is a closed solution, since not all closed source software vendors live up to our customers expectations.

I would like to gauge community interest in creating a group whose purpose is to test, review, and certify robust, stable, and safe  Enterprise versions of ROS.  This may be a group of volunteers, but I fully expect that such a group would need significant funding, hopefully by commercial and other large users.  It is also possible that a company could be create for or step into this role, much like RedHat.

Is anybody open to this idea?  Is this a good idea?  Has anybody else seen/expressed this need?  Is ROS at the point where this makes sense?  What do you think?


We at PAL Robotics would be open to the idea, yes. Probably the first step would be to start discussing what are the expectations of the interested parties, and determine the scope of "test, review, and certify robust, stable, and safe", as well as a sensible timeline to start making incremental progress. I personally have never participated in the certification of HW/SW, but I have co-workers that have, and from their experience, I can tell that there is a _lot_ to talk about.

How would you see the certification process taking place, as something like a LTS distribution, that comes out every n ROS distributions?. I'm guessing that officially certifying safe, robust and stable software is a costly process that will have slower dynamics than that of regular ROS releases.

So, yes, there is interest!. I hope there is more out there.

Best,

Adolfo.



Shaun Edwards
Senior Research Engineer
Manufacturing System Department


http://robotics.swri.org
http://rosindustrial.swri.org/
http://ros.swri.org<http://ros.swri.org/>
Southwest Research Institute
210-522-3277<tel:210-522-3277>


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--
Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian
Robotics engineer
adolfo.rodriguez at pal-robotics.com<mailto:adolfo.rodriguez at pal-robotics.com>
http://www.pal-robotics.com<http://www.pal-robotics.com/>

PAL ROBOTICS S.L
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