Open Robotics Launches Open Source Robotics Alliance – Robohub

The Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) is pleased to announce the creation of the Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA), a new initiative to strengthen the governance of our open source robotics software projects and ensure the good health of the Robot Operating System (ROS). ) Following the community for many years to come. OSRA will use a mixed membership and meritocratic model following other successful foundations for open source projects, including The Linux Foundation and the Eclipse Foundation.

OSRA extends an open call to all community stakeholders to participate in the technical oversight, direction, development and support of OSRF’s open source projects – ROS, Gazebo, Open-RMF and their infrastructure. Engagement across the robotics ecosystem is critical to this initiative.

The center of OSRA will be the Technical Steering Committee (TGC), which will oversee the activities of various project management committees, technical committees, special
Interest groups and working groups. As a charitable program of OSRF, overall responsibility for OSRA remains with the OSRF Board.

The Alliance received early support for our vision from major organizations such as NVIDIA, our inaugural Platinum Member.

“NVIDIA is developing with ROS 2 to bring accelerated computing and AI to developers, researchers and commercial applications,” said Gordon Grigor, vice president of Robotics Software, NVIDIA. “As OSRA’s inaugural Platinum Member, we will work together to advance open source robotics across the ecosystem by assisting with development and providing governance and continuity.”

Intrinsic also continues to support Open Robotics with its inaugural Platinum Membership. “From the many contributions of our team at Intrinsic, across projects like ROS, Gazebo, and Open-RMF within the Open Robotics community, to our acquisition of the Open Source Robotics Corporation (OSRC), we have invested deeply in the open source community and look forward to continuing our support of the ecosystem as an inaugural member of OSRA,” said Wendy Tan White, CEO of Intrinsic. Qualcomm Technologies rounds out the inaugural Platinum membership group and also signals its commitment to open source robotics.

“Qualcomm Technologies is excited to join the Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA) to help guide open source robotics software development and support the growth of the vibrant ROS Suite developer community,” said Dev Singh, vice president of business development and director. robotics and industrial automation at Qualcomm Technologies. “Our comprehensive robotics platform family leverages our long history in on-device AI processing and heterogeneous computing and targets all types of robots to deliver the benefits of AI at the edge.”

NVIDIA, Intrinsic and Qualcomm Technologies join nine other inaugural members at press time, including gold members Apex.ai and Zettascale, silver members Clearpath Robotics, Ekumen, eProsima and PickNik, and associate member Silicon Valley Robotics. Initial supporting organizations include Canonical and Open Navigation. Incoming members include Bosch and ROS-Industrial with several others to be announced soon.

Membership applications are now open for organizations and individuals interested in joining OSRA and supporting the future of open source robotics. Instructions on how to apply and information on membership levels and benefits are available at www.osralliance.org.

About Open Robotics: Open Robotics is the umbrella term for the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) and its initiatives. Founded in 2012, OSRF is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its flagship open source robotics software, ROS, is the world’s most widely used set of robotics frameworks. For more information on its new OSRA initiative, visit www.osralliance.org.