What is Robot Operating System (ROS)?
The Robot Operating System (ROS) is an open-source framework that provides libraries, tools, and conventions for developing robot software. Despite its name, it is not an operating system but a middleware layer that simplifies building complex robotic applications by offering standardised communication, hardware abstraction, and a vast ecosystem of reusable software packages.
What is the Robot Operating System (ROS)?
The Robot Operating System, commonly known as ROS, is an open-source software framework designed to simplify the development of robot applications. Despite its name, ROS is not a traditional operating system like Windows or Linux. Instead, it is a middleware layer that runs on top of a standard operating system and provides the tools, libraries, and conventions that robotics developers need to build sophisticated robotic systems.
Think of ROS as the equivalent of what Android is for smartphones. Before Android, every phone manufacturer had to build their entire software stack from scratch. Android provided a common platform that allowed developers to focus on building applications rather than reinventing fundamental capabilities. Similarly, ROS provides a common platform for robotics that allows developers to focus on their specific application rather than rebuilding basic capabilities like sensor integration, motor control, and inter-process communication.
How ROS Works
Core Architecture
ROS uses a modular architecture based on nodes, topics, and messages:
- Nodes: Independent software processes that perform specific functions. One node might control a motor, another might process camera images, and a third might plan the robot's path. This modularity makes systems easier to develop, test, and maintain.
- Topics: Named communication channels through which nodes exchange data. A camera node publishes image data on a "camera/image" topic, and any node that needs camera data subscribes to that topic.
- Messages: Standardised data formats used to communicate between nodes. ROS defines standard message types for common data like positions, velocities, images, and sensor readings.
- Services: Request-response communication patterns for operations that need a reply, such as asking the robot to calculate a path and return the result.
Key Capabilities
- Hardware abstraction: ROS provides standardised interfaces for sensors, motors, and other hardware, allowing the same software to work with different physical components
- Package management: A vast ecosystem of reusable software packages covering navigation, manipulation, perception, simulation, and more
- Simulation integration: Tight integration with simulation environments like Gazebo for testing robot software without physical hardware
- Visualisation tools: Built-in tools for visualising sensor data, robot state, and debugging information
- Recording and playback: The ability to record all robot data and replay it for analysis, debugging, and development
ROS 2
ROS 2 is the current major version, redesigned for commercial and industrial use. Key improvements over the original ROS include:
- Real-time support: Ability to meet strict timing requirements critical for industrial applications
- Multi-robot support: Built-in capabilities for coordinating multiple robots
- Security: Authentication and encryption for robot communication
- Embedded systems: Support for resource-constrained hardware common in commercial robots
- Quality of service: Configurable communication reliability for different use cases
Business Significance of ROS
Reduced Development Costs
ROS dramatically reduces the cost of developing robotic applications. Instead of building perception, navigation, manipulation, and control systems from scratch, developers can leverage thousands of existing packages. What might take a team of engineers a year to build from scratch can often be achieved in months using ROS, reducing development costs by fifty to seventy percent for many applications.
Vendor Independence
Because ROS is open-source and hardware-agnostic, businesses using ROS-based systems are not locked into a single robot vendor. Software developed for one ROS-compatible robot can often be adapted to run on another, protecting investment in software development and providing negotiating leverage with hardware suppliers.
Talent Availability
ROS has become the de facto standard in robotics education. Universities worldwide teach ROS, and the majority of robotics engineers entering the workforce have ROS experience. For businesses in Southeast Asia, this means a growing pool of ROS-capable talent from universities in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
Ecosystem and Community
The ROS ecosystem includes over ten thousand software packages covering nearly every aspect of robotics. An active global community contributes code, documentation, and support. This ecosystem means that many common robotics challenges have already been solved and shared as open-source packages.
ROS in Southeast Asia
ROS adoption is growing across the region:
- Education: Leading universities in Singapore (NUS, NTU), Malaysia (UTM, UM), Thailand (Chulalongkorn, KMITL), and the Philippines (UP, Ateneo) include ROS in their robotics curricula, building a pipeline of ROS-capable engineers.
- Startups: A growing number of robotics startups across ASEAN are building on ROS, from warehouse automation companies in Singapore to agricultural robotics firms in Thailand, benefiting from faster development cycles and lower software costs.
- Manufacturing integration: Factories in Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia are increasingly adopting ROS-based robotic systems that can be customised for specific production requirements without expensive proprietary software licenses.
- Research and development: Government-funded robotics research centres across ASEAN, including A*STAR in Singapore and NSTDA in Thailand, use ROS extensively, creating technology and talent that flows into the commercial sector.
Common Misconceptions
"ROS is only for research and prototyping." While ROS originated in academic research, ROS 2 was specifically designed for commercial and industrial deployment. Major companies use ROS 2 in production systems including warehouse robots, autonomous vehicles, and manufacturing equipment.
"Using ROS means everything is free." ROS itself is open-source and free, but commercial deployments typically involve costs for system integration, custom development, technical support, and potentially commercial ROS distributions with enterprise features and guaranteed support.
"ROS is a complete ready-to-use robot solution." ROS is a framework and toolkit, not a finished product. Significant engineering effort is still required to build, integrate, test, and deploy a complete robotic application using ROS. The value is in accelerated development, not elimination of development.
"ROS only works with Linux." While Linux remains the primary platform, ROS 2 officially supports Windows and macOS, and community efforts have brought ROS to additional platforms including real-time operating systems used in industrial settings.
Getting Started with ROS
- Assess whether ROS aligns with your needs by evaluating the available packages for your target application domain
- Start with ROS 2 rather than the original ROS, as it is designed for commercial applications and is the actively developed version
- Invest in training for your engineering team through official ROS tutorials, online courses, and community resources
- Begin with simulation using Gazebo to develop and test your application before deploying on physical hardware
- Engage with the ROS community through forums, conferences, and user groups to learn from others solving similar challenges
For CEOs and CTOs evaluating robotics investments, ROS is a critical factor in vendor selection and technology strategy. Choosing ROS-based robotic systems provides three strategic advantages. First, it avoids vendor lock-in. Proprietary robot software ties you to a single supplier, limiting negotiating leverage and creating risk if that supplier raises prices, changes direction, or goes out of business. ROS-based systems can be maintained, modified, and migrated independently.
Second, ROS reduces the total cost of software development for robotic applications by fifty to seventy percent by providing reusable components for common capabilities. This makes robotics projects feasible at smaller scales and allows faster iteration on custom applications specific to your operations.
Third, ROS ensures access to talent. As the global standard for robotics education, ROS skills are the most widely available among robotics engineers. For businesses in Southeast Asia competing for technical talent, requiring proprietary robotics skills dramatically narrows the candidate pool and increases hiring costs.
Business leaders should ask robotics vendors whether their platforms support ROS, request clarity on software licensing models, and evaluate the long-term maintainability and portability of any robotic system investment. ROS compatibility should be considered a baseline requirement for any significant robotics procurement decision.
- Require ROS 2 compatibility when evaluating robotic systems and vendors. This ensures access to modern features including security, real-time support, and multi-robot coordination.
- Assess the maturity and maintenance status of ROS packages relevant to your application. Not all open-source packages are equally well maintained or production-ready.
- Budget for integration and customisation work. While ROS provides building blocks, assembling them into a production system requires skilled engineering effort.
- Consider commercial ROS distributions that offer enterprise support, testing, and security patches if your application is mission-critical.
- Invest in ROS training for your engineering team. The learning curve is moderate, and trained engineers can develop and maintain robotic applications far more efficiently.
- Plan your software architecture to take advantage of ROS modularity. Well-structured ROS applications are easier to test, debug, upgrade, and extend over time.
- Evaluate whether ROS community packages meet your needs before building custom solutions. The ecosystem often has existing solutions for common robotics challenges.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ROS suitable for production industrial robots or only for research?
ROS 2 is specifically designed for production use in commercial and industrial settings. It includes features critical for industrial deployment such as real-time processing support, security through DDS-based communication, quality of service guarantees, and multi-robot coordination. Major robotics companies deploy ROS 2 in production warehouse robots, autonomous vehicles, and manufacturing systems. However, production deployment requires more rigorous testing, security hardening, and system integration than research use, and many organisations benefit from commercial ROS distributions that provide enterprise-grade support and validated packages.
How difficult is it to find ROS developers in Southeast Asia?
ROS talent availability in Southeast Asia is growing steadily. Leading universities in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam include ROS in robotics and computer science programmes. Singapore has the most developed ROS talent pool due to its strong robotics research ecosystem. Hiring ROS developers is significantly easier than finding engineers skilled in proprietary robotics platforms. For businesses struggling to hire locally, ROS skills are also transferable across regions, and remote development is feasible since much ROS development can be done in simulation without physical hardware access.
More Questions
ROS 2 is released under the Apache 2.0 licence, which is permissive and commercially friendly. You can use, modify, and distribute ROS 2 in commercial products without releasing your own source code or paying royalties. However, individual ROS packages contributed by the community may use different licences, so it is important to audit the licences of all packages you incorporate into your product. Some packages use GPL or LGPL licences that have different requirements. For businesses, conducting a licence audit during the design phase and maintaining a bill of materials for all software dependencies is recommended practice.
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