Continuing with its commitment to open-source robotics software, Toyota Research Institute (TRI) announces charitable contribution to the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF). This is the second consecutive year, when TRI is donating $1 million to OSRF. With the help of TRI’s gift, OSRF plans to improve the features and capabilities of ROS and Gazebo to stimulate further use in automotive applications.
OSRF offers the global robotics community access to open-source robotics software and development tools. Founded by members of the global robotics community, it is an independent non-profit organization that supports the development, distribution, and adoption of open source software for use in robotics research and education. The group oversees the development of the Robot Operating System (ROS), a flexible framework for writing robot software, and Gazebo, a 3D multi-robot simulator.
Team OSRF is confident that the forthcoming second generation of ROS, called ROS 2, will be used heavily in development of software and supporting systems for autonomous vehicles. In addition to this donation, TRI is also participating in a two-year research agreement on a variety of projects with the Open Source Robotics Corporation (OSRC). This is a for-profit subsidiary of OSRF’s.
Software developers can use Gazebo to help with simulated testing to ensure their systems achieve a high level of safety in operation. Over the past year, two major open source self-driving vehicle software systems were independently developed in the ROS community and released under an open source license.
“Open-source robotics software systems are becoming more pervasive in the automotive community. TRI is helping to enhance the quality and robustness of our systems to meet the needs of automotive users,” said OSRF, CEO, Brian Gerkey. “TRI also enables us to conduct vital maintenance and updates on our public-facing services which ensures our systems continue to be accessible and perform flawlessly.”
