ROS 2 Kilted Kaiju Release! 
Happy World Turtle Day! Today the ROS 2 Release Team is happy to announce the eleventh release of ROS 2: Kilted Kaiju (codenamed Kilted).
In addition to the official logo shared previously, we also have a new Kilted Kaiju turtlesim and Discourse icon :kilted:. Our Kilted T-shirt and swag campaign is still live! You can still grab all the cool merch if you want to support the release. All proceeds help support the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF).
Kilted Kaiju is a regular release that will be supported until November 2026. The distribution is primarily supported on the following platforms:
- Tier 1 platforms:
- Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble): amd64 and arm64
- Windows (Visual Studio 2019): amd64
- Tier 2 platforms:
- RHEL 9: amd64
- Tier 3 platforms:
- macOS: amd64
- Debian Bookworm: amd64
For more information about RMW implementations, compiler/interpreter versions, and system dependency versions please see REP-2000.
If you are new to ROS, we recommend trying Kilted Kaiju on a Tier 1 supported platform. Check the installation instructions and tutorials on docs.ros.org, and give Kilted a spin!
Should you run into any difficulties, please ask a question on ROS Stack Exchange. If you would like to try Kilted but are afraid of commitment you can find Kilted Docker containers on Docker Hub shortly. Open Container Initiative Kilted Kaiju images are also available from Shane Loretz Github repository.
New Features and Enhancements
Kilted Kaiju is feature packed and full of improvements! If you want the gritty details feel free to peruse the release notes and changelog for core ROS 2 packages. Weâve summarized a few new features weâll think youâll love below.
Tier 1 RMW Zenoh Support
ROS 2 Kilted Kaiju is our first ROS 2 release to support Eclipse Zenoh as a Tier 1 middleware! What do we mean by Tier 1 middleware? A Tier 1 middleware supports all of the listed Tier 1 operating systems for that particular ROS release, and we verify that support with a full battery of tests that run daily. Moreover, each Tier 1 middleware supports a full SROS2 security suite that includes access control, authentication, and encryption tools. We also require that all Tier 1 middlewares support all of the Tier 1 code quality requirements defined in REP-2004 and be included in the core ROS packages as listed in REP-2005. To learn more about the Eclipse Zenoh RMW please visit the following resources.
- RMW Zenoh Read Me / Install Instructions
- RMW Zenoh Design Document
- RMW Zenoh Security Tools
- RMW Zenoh Quality Declaration
- RMW Zenoh Tier 1 Support
Eclipse Zenoh is not yet the default RMW in Kilted Kaiju. If you want to take Zenoh out for a test drive youâll need to swap out your RMW implementation using the following tutorial.
Python Improvements
There are two big improvements to our Python client library (rclpy) available in Kilted Kaiju. The first one is extended Python type checking support, particularly for Python actions and Python generics (compound types such as list[str]). These changes can be found in RCLPy #1349. To ease Python type checking you may want to familiarize yourself with our ament_mypy tool and its relevant documentation.
Thanks to a community member porting the events executor from rclcpp to Python, performance in ROS 2 Kilted Kaiju has also significantly improved. Some rudimentary benchmarks indicate that these speed ups could be as much as 10 times! Youâll need to opt-in to the new executor to see the performance improvement by adding the following to your rclpy.spin command:
rclpy.spin(my_node, rclpy.experimental.EventsExecutor)Action Introspection
Ever wonder about the status of your action server? Using the new action introspection CLI command you can interrogate your action server from the command line with the action echo command! This new command will show you the current state of your action. The best part? This action status information is also available within your ROS Bags!
New ROSBag Features
Kilted Kaiju has a laundry list of new ROSBag features that will greatly improve the lives of ROS users. A huge improvement for the ROSBag user experience is support for playing multiple bags! You can now replay multiple bag filess with a single command line call.
ros2 bag play -i bag1 -i bag2 -i bag3 [storage_id]Another bag playback usability improvement is a progress bar that lets you interactively execute, view and control your bag(s) playback. You can check out a video of the progress bar here.
In Kilted Kaiju, ROSBag now has its own first class action server that lets you trigger recording of a bag file by calling an action. We like to think of this feature as a system snapshot mode that lets you log a new behavior for easy debugging.
The ROSBag command also supports four new flags to help you better filter and order the replay of your data. These new flags include:
- A message chronology filter, âmessage-order, that lets you choose between the time messages were sent or received.
- A sorting utility, âsort, that lets you sort topics, services and actions by name, topic type, and number of recorded messages.
- Ever wondered why your bag file was so big? Our new âsize-contribution filter lets you see the amount of data contributed by each topic.
- Is log data spoiling your bag file? Trying to track down a bug? Our new âlog-level command lets you set the playback log level of your bag.
Better Windows Experience
Windows 11 is here, and weâre working towards a better ROS user experience for Windows 11 users in our planned 2026 âL Turtleâ release. A big step in the right direction is a new way to install ROS on Windows. ROS 2 Kilted Kaiju now uses Pixi (prefix.dev) and Conda as the default Windows installation mechanism. This approach has number of advantages:
- easier dependency management,
- a simplified installation process,
- workspace-level installation (vs. global), and
- a lower maintainer burden.
Install: bit.ly/KiltedOnWindows
Miscellaneous Features
Kilted Kaiju now supports NV12 in common interfaces! What is NV12? It is a common and efficient way of encoding image data using the YCbCr approach. The format is commonly used by hardware devices like cameras and graphics cards, and many devices have built-in acceleration support for it. This can potentially improve image processing and transport speeds.
A Community Effort
ROS 2 is truly a community effort, and this could not have been better exemplified by our public beta testing of Kilted Kaiju over the past few weeks. Almost 545 test cases were put through the ringer with several improvements identified along the way. It really helped âhardenâ the Kilted distribution. The release team would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all testers. For our top twenty testers you should get an e-mail in your inbox with a swag coupon code sometime later next week. A full list of our testers and the number of issues they tested:
Top Test and Tutorial Party Testers
See all 50+ T&T Party Contributors
| Rank | Assignee | Closed Issues |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | @suchetanrs | 84 |
| 2 | @jncfa | 60 |
| 3 | @ShahazadAbdulla | 51 |
| 4 | @pradyum | 44 |
| 5 | @jmackay2 | 30 |
| 6 | @danielcranston | 24 |
| 7 | @khaledgabr77 | 23 |
| 8 | @Aniketkumarroy | 20 |
| 9 | @4-legends | 20 |
| 10 | @JatinVira | 16 |
| 11 | @Tanishq30052002 | 15 |
| 12 | @akky20 | 13 |
| 13 | @JasperGrant | 13 |
| 14 | @Innomer | 13 |
| 15 | @avanmalleghem | 12 |
| 16 | @Tenveis | 12 |
| 17 | @zamantousif | 12 |
| 18 | @fujitatomoya | 11 |
| 19 | @dheerubhai-101 | 9 |
| 20 | @leander-dsouza | 9 |
| 21 | @nobso | 7 |
| 22 | @slowrunner | 7 |
| 23 | @Poo-09 | 6 |
| 24 | @SANJAY-16012 | 5 |
| 25 | @HenryLeC | 5 |
| 26 | @david-dorf | 5 |
| 27 | @GeorgeVrk | 4 |
| 28 | @seekbot | 4 |
| 29 | @Amronos | 4 |
| 30 | @aehils | 4 |
| 31 | @DasariChaitanya | 4 |
| 32 | @rtarun1 | 4 |
| 33 | @NickTziaros | 4 |
| 34 | @Juliaj | 3 |
| 35 | @boby2965 | 3 |
| 36 | @Barry-Xu-2018 | 3 |
| 37 | @Noel215 | 3 |
| 38 | @Malay-dev | 2 |
| 39 | @ivrolan | 2 |
| 40 | @SuperGops7 | 2 |
| 41 | @Sanoronas | 1 |
| 42 | @pedroazeredo04 | 1 |
| 43 | @KajalAw | 1 |
| 44 | @mvishnu1404 | 1 |
| 45 | @hyfan1116 | 1 |
| 46 | @marlvernchimbwanda | 1 |
| 47 | @Matt5sean3 | 1 |
| 48 | @dilpreetsingh25 | 1 |
| 49 | @fgallegosalido | 1 |
| 50 | @yashphalle | 1 |
| 51 | @shardrv | 1 |
| 52 | @virkhanna20 | 1 |
| 53 | @tfoote | 1 |
Thanks to the 178 contributors who contributed to this release through code changes, documentation, and testing, and especially to our ROS Boss @cottsay! The following individuals made contributions to the Kilted release:
See full list of all 178 contributors
- Abhishek Kashyap
- Addisu Z. Taddese
- Alberto Soragna
- Alex Day
- Alexander Reimann
- Alejandro HernĂĄndez Cordero
- Alexis Pojomovsky
- Angel LoGa
- Angsa Deployment Team
- Anthony Welte
- Arjo Chakravarty
- BĆaĆŒej Sowa
- Barry Xu
- Ben Wolsieffer
- Bernd Pfrommer
- Bo Chen
- Brad Martin
- Carlos AgĂŒero
- Carlos Espinoza Curto
- ChenYing Kuo (CY)
- Chris Iverach-Brereton
- Chris Lalancette
- Christian Rauch
- Christian Ruf
- Christophe Bedard
- Christopher Wecht
- CihatAltiparmak
- Clément Chupin
- Cole Tucker
- Daisuke Nishimatsu
- Daniel Cranston (danielcranston)
- David V. Lu!!
- Dr. Denis
- Dominik
- Elian NEPPEL
- Emmanuel
- Eric Cousineau
- Erik Boasson
- Esteve Fernandez
- Ezra Brooks
- Fabian Thomsen
- Felix F Xu
- Felix Penzlin
- Florencia
- Földi Tamås
- Franco Cipollone
- Francisco Gallego Salido
- G.A. vd. Hoorn
- Geoffrey Biggs
- Giorgio Pintaudi
- Guillaume Beuzeboc
- Hans-Martin
- Harry Sarson
- Homalozoa X
- Hsin-Yi
- Hugal31
- Ivån López Broceño
- Jack OâQuin
- James Mount
- Jan Hernas
- Janosch Machowinski
- Jeffery Hsu
- Joe Speed
- Jonas Otto
- Jonathan
- Jorge J. Perez
- Jose Tomas Lorente
- José Mastrangelo
- Julien Enoch
- Justus Braun
- Kalvik
- Kang
- Katherine Scott
- Kevin Egger
- Kosuke Takeuchi
- Kostubh Khandelwal
- Kotaro Yoshimoto
- Larry Gezelius
- Leander Stephen DâSouza
- Lucas Walter
- Lucas Wendland
- Lukas Bulwahn
- Lukas SchÀper
- Mahmoud Mazouz
- Manu
- Marco A. Gutierrez
- Mario DomĂnguez LĂłpez
- Martin Pecka
- Masayoshi Dohi
- Matt Condino
- Matthew Elwin
- Matthew Foran
- Matthias Holoch
- Mattis Kieffer
- Michael Carlstrom
- Michael Carroll
- Michael Hosmar
- Michael Orlov
- Michael Ripperger
- Michal Sojka
- Michal Staniaszek
- Miguel Company
- Mikael Arguedas
- Morgan Quigley
- Mosfet80 (mosfet80)
- Nadav Elkabets
- Nate Koenig
- Nathan Wiebe Neufeldt
- Nicola Loi
- Nils-Christian Iseke
- Olivia/F.F.
- Patrick Roncagliolo
- Pedro de Azeredo
- Peng Wang
- R Kent James
- RaduPopescu
- Ramon Wijnands
- Rein Appeldoorn
- Rob Woolley
- Roderick Taylor
- Roland Arsenault
- Romain DESILLE
- Roman
- Ruddick Lawrence
- Russ
- Ryan
- Saif Sidhik
- SangtaekLee
- Sanoronas
- Sascha Arnold
- Scott K Logan
- Sebastian Castro
- Shane Loretz
- Shivang Vijay
- Shynur
- Silvio Traversaro
- Steve Macenski
- Steve Peters
- Steven! Ragnarök
- Stefan Fabian
- Suchetanrs (suchetanrs)
- Sukhvansh Jain
- Tanishq Chaudhary
- Taxo Rubio RTI
- Terry Scott
- Tim Clephas
- Timo Röhling
- Tom Moore
- Tomoya Fujita
- Tony Najjar
- Trushant Adeshara
- Tully Foote
- WATANABE Aoi
- Wei HU
- Will
- William Woodall
- Wolf Vollprecht
- YR
- Yadu
- Yadunund
- Yuyuan Yuan
- Zahi Kakish
- chama1176
- cramke
- disRecord
- jmackay2
- jmachowinski
- kyle-basis
- lobolanja
- Martin Llofriu (mllofriu)
- methylDragon
- quic-zhaoyuan
- rcp1
- rkeating-planted
- yschulz
- yellowhatter
- zycczy
- Ăystein Sture
ROS wouldnât exist if it werenât for all of our wonderful package maintainers. If you are a package maintainer who plans to have their code ready for release today, or soon, feel free to sound off in the comments.
