Open-source robotics
Encyclopedia
An open-source robot is a robot whose blueprint
s, schematics or source code
are released under an open-source
model.
robots as Sparky and then true robots (being able to take decisions themselves) as the Open Automaton Project and Leaf Project. Certain commercial companies now also produce kits for making simple robots. One example being DeAgostini.
Despite this however, some DIY builders are already looking to helpful activities that can be performed today as vacuum cleaning
, floor washing
and automated mowing.
Blueprint
A blueprint is a type of paper-based reproduction usually of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design. More generally, the term "blueprint" has come to be used to refer to any detailed plan....
s, schematics or source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
are released under an open-source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
model.
Full robot projects
- LH001, Open Hardware Medical-Research liquid handling robot
- Sparky Jr., Mobile Telepresence Research Project, Est. 1994
- Open Automaton Project (oap.sourceforge.net)
- Leaf ProjectLEAF ProjectThe LEAF Project is a collection of Linux distributions that began as a fork from the the Linux Router Project "linux-on-a-floppy" distribution...
(www.leafproject.org/) - RobotCub, including iCubICubAn iCub is a 1 metre high humanoid robot testbed for research into human cognition and artificial intelligence.It was designed by the RobotCub Consortium, of several European universities and is now supported by other projects such as ITALK. The robot is open-source, with the hardware design,...
- DARwIn-OP
- OpenRAVEOpenRAVEOpen Robotics Automation Virtual Environment provides an environment for testing, developing, and deploying motion planning algorithms in real-world robotics applications. The main focus is on simulation and analysis of kinematic and geometric information related to motion planning. OpenRAVE’s...
- e-puck mobile robotE-puck mobile robotThe e-puck is a small differential wheeled mobile robot. It was originally designed for micro-engineering education by Michael Bonani and Francesco Mondada at the ASL laboratory of Prof...
, an open-hardware, education oriented, mobile robot. - Open-source Micro-robotic Project, an open-source space swarm robot project
- Qwerkbot, simple open source robot from Carnegie Mellon University
- Orb swarmOrb swarmOrb Swarm is a kinetic art work consisting of six semi-autonomous spherical robots. It was created in 2007 by a group of engineers and artists including Michael Prados, Jon Foote, Lee Sonko, and many others....
Open-source software
- NXJLeJOSleJOS is a firmware replacement for Lego Mindstorms programmable bricks. It currently supports the LEGO RCX brick and leJOS NXJ supports the NXT brick. It includes a Java virtual machine, which allows Lego Mindstorms robots to be programmed in the Java programming language. It is often used for...
An open source JavaJava (programming language)Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
programming environment for the Lego NXT robot kit (http://lejos.sourceforge.net/) - CLARAty Robotics software developed by JPL as part of the Mars program.
- ROS (Robot Operating System)ROS (Robot Operating System)Robot Operating System is a software framework for robot software development, providing operating system-like functionality on a heterogenous computer cluster. ROS was originally developed in 2007 under the name switchyard by the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in support of the...
(open-source software running on the Willow Garage robot) - URBIURBIUrbi is an open source cross-platform software platform in C++ used to develop applications for robotics and complex systems. Urbi is based on the UObject distributed C++ component architecture. It also includes the urbiscript orchestration language which is a parallel and event-driven script...
(C++ distributed/embedded components framework + parallel/event-driven orchestration script language) - PlayerPlayer ProjectThe Player Project is a project to create free software for research into robotics and sensor systems . Its components include the Player network server and Stage and Gazebo robot platform simulators...
(robot framework) - Orocos, C++ framework for component-based robot control software
- Orca (robot framework)
- MOOS (robot framework)
- RoboComp (robot framework)
- RUBICS
- CARMENCarmen ToolkitCARMEN, the Carnegie Mellon Robot Navigation Toolkit, is an open-source collection of software for mobile robot control. It is designed as a modular software to provide basic navigation functionalities, which include: base and sensor control, logging, obstacle avoidance, localization, path...
(robot simulator) - TeamBots (robot simulator)
- Open Dynamics EngineOpen Dynamics EngineThe Open Dynamics Engine is a physics engine in C/C++. Its two main components are a rigid body dynamics simulation engine and a collision detection engine...
(physics engine for modelling articulated rigid-body dynamics) - Simbad robot simulatorSimbad robot simulatorSimbad robot simulator is an open source cross-platform software simulator used to develop robotics and artificial intelligence applications. The Simbad project started in 2005, initially developed by Dr. Louis Hugues and is widely used for educational purposes. Simbad is distributed under the GNU...
(robot simulator) - GazeboGazeboA gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal, that may be built, in parks, gardens, and spacious public areas. Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and open on all sides; they provide shade, shelter, ornamental features in a landscape, and a place to rest...
(multi-robot simulator) - Dave's Robotic Operating System
- Sparky Telepresence Controller
- Home brew robot software running on the consumer robotic platform Spykee
- OpenJAUS (robot / unmanned systems framework)
- RI-JAUS SDK A cross-platform, GPL-licensed C++ SDK implementing the JAUSJAUSJoint Architecture for Unmanned Systems , formerly known as Joint Architecture for Unmanned Ground Systems , was originally an initiative by the United States Department of Defense to develop an open architecture for the domain of unmanned systems.In order to ensure that the architecture is...
protocol for robot control. - OpenRTM-aistOpenRTM-aistOpenRTM-aist is a software platform developed on the basis of the RT middleware standard. OpenRTM-aist is developed by National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology which also contributes to definition of the RT-middleware standard....
(robotics technology middleware) - Open Platform for Robotic Services (OPRoS) Component based framework, GUI editors in Eclipse and a Simulator, OPRoS Components
Open-source hardware
- Make Controller Kit
- motherboards with CPU; e.g. ArduinoArduinoArduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller, descendant of the open-source Wiring platform, designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible. The hardware consists of a simple open hardware design for the Arduino board with an Atmel AVR...
- The Rossum project open-sources certain robotic modules and tools (mappers, robot simulators, encoder designers, ...)
Advantages
- Lower-cost. Costs of a robot can be decreased dramatically with prominent examples being the robots being built by Hanson ($300) and project aiko ($25000)
- Interchangeable software and/or hardware
Popularity
A first sign of the increasing popularity of building robots yourself can be found with the DIY community. What began with small competitions for remote operated vehicles (e.g. RobotWars), soon developed to the building of autonomous telepresenceAutonomous telepresence
Autonomous Telepresence is a term coined by Marque Cornblatt to describe an emerging field of study that combines robotics, social networking and human interaction. These elements together enable an entirely new and unique form of two-way communication - remotely operated face-to-face video chat...
robots as Sparky and then true robots (being able to take decisions themselves) as the Open Automaton Project and Leaf Project. Certain commercial companies now also produce kits for making simple robots. One example being DeAgostini.
Uses
At present, open-source robots are not yet sophisticated enough to perform much of the tasks a person can do, nor perform difficult or complicated tasks that only robots may—one day—provide; this being:- metalworks (precise metal sheets and pipe-bending, sheet/pipe cutting; e.g. via MultimachineMultimachineThe multimachine is an all-purpose open source machine tool that can be built inexpensively by a semi-skilled mechanic with common hand tools, from discarded car and truck parts, using only commonly available hand tools and no electricity. Its size can range from being small enough to fit in a...
and/or other embedded tools as cramps, pliers, ...) - translator for many languages (including the main languages as Mandarin, English, Spanish, Bengali, Hindi, etc.)
- calorie-counter for the robot-owner; counting the calories of food items the owner eats and preventing him from eating more that day when he reaches 2000 kcal
- building electronic circuitry (PCB-boards)
- transportation; this e.g. by riding on the back, similar as on a horse (the latter allowing the robot to return to the appearance of a normal person after disembarking)
- personal protection (robots, being made of metal, are able to withstand quite some beating and may be learned to incapacitate attackers by punchingSelf-defenseSelf-defense, self-defence or private defense is a countermeasure that involves defending oneself, one's property or the well-being of another from physical harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in times of danger is available in many...
or Less-lethal weapons ) - bomb disposalBomb disposalBomb disposal is the process by which hazardous explosive devices are rendered safe. Bomb disposal is an all encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functions in the following fields:*Military:...
and/or the making of explosive compounds for bomb disposal (e.g. on the owner's farming fields e.g. in developing countries as Cambodia, countries south and north of the sahara as Angola, Western Sahara, Libia, ..) or destruction of obstacles or to prepare building sites - providing communication through a small computer (e.g. Linutop, EeeBox, gPCGOS (operating system)gOS or "good OS" was an Ubuntu-based GNU/Linux distribution created by Good OS LLC, a Los Angeles-based corporation. Its CIO Dave Liu described that after meeting Enlightenment and open source people, he realized that his dream to bring Web 2.0 applications into mainstream use could be achieved by...
, and integrated satellite Internet uplink or long-range Wi-Fi or WiMAX-antenna). The type of communication may include: active searching on webpages (browsingWeb browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
), e-mail, text and or audio based communication with others (e.g. VoIP calls; both to distant users via Internet as local VoIP-communication to team members in close proximity), ...
Despite this however, some DIY builders are already looking to helpful activities that can be performed today as vacuum cleaning
Roomba
The Roomba is a series of autonomous robotic vacuum cleaners sold by iRobot. Under normal operating conditions, it is able to navigate a living space and common obstacles while vacuuming the floor...
, floor washing
Scooba
Scooba is an automated robotic floor washer produced by iRobot. It was released in limited numbers in December 2005 for the Christmas season with full production starting in early 2006...
and automated mowing.
See also
- Scott Hassan (founder of Willow Garage and senior Google board member)
- STAIRSStairs-People:* Scott Kannberg , guitarist of Pavement* A. Edison Stairs , New Brunswick politician* Denis Stairs , engineer, Montreal businessman* Ernest W. Stairs , New Brunswick politician...
- Softbot
- KheperaKhepera mobile robotThe Khepera is a small differential wheeled mobile robot that was developed at the LAMI laboratory of Prof. Jean-Daniel Nicoud at EPFL in the mid '90s. It was developed by Edo...
III - Robotics suiteRobotics suiteA robotics suite is a visual environment for robot control and simulation. They are typically an end-to-end platform for robotics development and include tools for visual programming and creating and debugging robot applications...