In the October 2023 Technical Steering Committee meeting, representatives from iRobot presented on the topic of “Scaling ROS 2 for Production”, where issues regarding the current state of ROS 2 in how it manages developer cost, product quality, stability, and performance were addressed, and new ideas were proposed. The general consensus from the meeting feedback was that a working group could be formed to dedicate planning and resources towards implementing solutions to this agenda. Thus, here is the proposal:
Context: ROS 2 is a great software framework that enables efficient research, quick prototyping, and access to a community of open-source robotics projects. However, the challenge remains for issues concerning scaling ROS 2 usage for a production robot. In a production-oriented environment, quality control is a necessary requirement, therefore, any regression in the build, or stability of code on the robot, or in its performance can have major consequences. In addition, if an underlying change in the ROS 2 code significantly affects the overall build time or developer cost for integrating into robotics products, then it may impact a developer or company’s bottom line. These are concerns that make ROS 2 limited and difficult to incorporate in larger-scale production use cases.
Mission Statement: Affirm ROS 2’s commitment as an infrastructure for scalable deployment and production of robotics products by prioritizing and coordinating efforts to address concerns of Developer Cost, Stability, Quality Control, and Performance.
Key Topics to Cover:
• ROS 2 Build Farm & Statistics
• CICD & Testing Coverage
• Release schedule requirements
• Performance Evaluation & Regressions
• RMW Relationship
• Architecture Improvements
• Documentation
Goals
• Early-detection / resolution of regressions in build time, performance, and stability
• Support for physical testing as part of CI before release
• Improved capacity for developer tuning / configuration
• Stricter requirements for RMW tier support to address testing and stability
• Accessible documentation for advanced or optimized production use cases
Group expectations:
• Bi-weekly or monthly meetings to discuss solutions to address above agenda
• Define tasks and github issues related to implementing solutions
• Recruit and assign owners and resources for completing tasks
• Align agenda and task(s) timeline with ROS 2 release schedule
Call for Participation:
If you are interested in updates or participating in working group meetings, please fill out the following google form survey:
If you have any feedback on the content or direction of this proposed working group, please feel free to write a comment on this post or in the above survey. We will send a follow-up notification to organize the first meeting launch date and time.