[ros-users] ROS 2.0 Strategy review

Bill Smart bill.smart at oregonstate.edu
Tue Sep 29 17:23:15 UTC 2015


>
> Which sounds like building a skyscraper without taking care about its
>> foundations. :)
>
>
You could also characterize it as building a skyscraper without developing
a new formula for concrete, and trusting that the concrete researchers got
it right :-)

Despite my previous comments, I really like some of the changes in ROS 2.
Moving to DDS is, I think, a positive thing, although I share some of
concerns about the licensing model.  The think I worry about most is the
all-in-one set of changes, and the risk of bifurcating the community, even
for a little while.

Also, I was thinking about the (perceived) autocratic behaviour of OSRF,
and about the origins of ROS.  For about a decade, we'd been talking about
 a common middleware for robotics in the academic community.  I remember a
particular meeting where we discussed the proper representation for angles
for an hour.  The wasn't much of a tangible result from these meetings
because many of the issues were bike sheds
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_triviality>.  Then
Willow Garage came along, asked a bunch of people in the community what
they thought, and implemented ROS.  What resulted was about 80% right, and
didn't completely satisfy anyone.  But, for about 80% of the time, it was
good enough, and it actually existed.  Sometimes we have to stop talking
and just do it, even if it's not the optimal strategy.

Of course, this doesn't mean that everything that OSRF does is right, and
there are definitely open questions on some of the changes.  However, we're
operating under constraints: none of us are funded to improve the core of
ROS (or, at least, no-one that I'm aware of).  OSRF has some funding, but
it's limited, and they have to pick one way to proceed and follow it.  No
matter what they choose, some of us will disagree.

-- Bill



> Imagine that people are looking for a system which is good both for
> commercial uses and research ones. The former are potentially afraid of
> betting on a vendor locked horse (to which one has to add all the concerns
> about IP and licensing) while the latter are looking for something that can
> work even outside the lab (one never knows if the next spin-off is around
> the corner).
>
> Valerio
>
>
>
>
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