Why ROS?

ROS (Robot Operating System) is an open source software development kit for robotics applications. ROS offers a standard software platform to developers across industries that will carry them from research and prototyping all the way through to deployment and production.

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Create something new and do it faster and better by building on ROS!

Global Community

For over 10+ years the ROS project has produced a vast ecosystem of software for robotics by nurturing a global community of millions of developers and users who contribute to and improve that software. ROS is developed by and for that community, who will be its stewards into the future.

Proven in Use

ROS is relied upon throughout the robotics industry. It’s the norm for teaching robotics. It’s the basis for most robotics research, from single-student projects to multi-institution collaborations and large-scale competitions. And it’s inside robots that are running in production all around the world today. In the autonomous mobile robot (AMR) alone, ROS has helped to create billions of dollars in value.

Shorten Time to Market

ROS provides the tools, libraries, and capabilities that you need to develop your robotics applications, allowing you to spend more time on the work that is important for your business. Because it is open-source, you have the flexibility to decide where and how to use ROS, as well as the freedom to customize it for your needs. Moreover, ROS isn’t exclusive, you don’t need to choose between ROS or some other software stack; ROS easily integrates with your existing software to bring its tools to your problem.

Multi-domain

ROS is ready for use across a wide array of robotics applications, from indoor to outdoor, home to automotive, underwater to space, and consumer to industrial.

Multi-platform

ROS 2 is supported and tested on Linux, Windows, and macOS, as well as various embedded platforms (via micro-ROS), allowing seamless development and deployment of on-robot autonomy, back-end management, and user interfaces. The tiered support model allows for ports to new platforms, such as real-time and embedded operating systems, to be introduced and promoted as they gain interest and investment.

100% Open-source

ROS is and always will be open-source, ensuring that our global community has free and unfettered access to a high-quality, best-in-class, fully featured robotics SDK. We build ROS atop other open source projects and we leverage and follow open standards (such as OMG’s DDS) wherever possible.

Commercial Friendly

While we earnestly encourage open source contributions to ROS from our user community, we never demand it. We distribute ROS under permissive open source licenses, with Apache 2.0 being our default. You’re welcome to modify ROS, mix it together with your own and others’ non-open software, and distribute the result in your proprietary product, and you don’t even need to tell us about it. Of course, we always enjoy hearing what our users are up to with ROS, so please do let us know if you’re able!

Industry Support

As demonstrated by the membership of the ROS 2 Technical Steering Committee, industry support for ROS 2 is strong. Companies large and small from around the world are committing their resources to making open source contributions to ROS 2, in addition to developing products on top.