TRI extends support to Open Source Robotics Foundation

Continuing with its commitment to open source robotics software, Toyota Research Institute (TRI) has announced its contribution to the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF). This is the second consecutive year that TRI is donating US$ 1 million to OSRF. With the help of TRI’s gift, OSRF plans to improve the features and capabilities of the Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo to stimulate their use in automotive applications.

OSRF offers the global robotics community access to open source robotics software and development tools. Founded by members of the community, it is an independent non-profit organisation that supports the development, distribution and adoption of open source software for use in robotics research and education. The group oversees the development of ROS, a flexible framework for writing robot software, and Gazebo, a 3D multi-robot simulator.

Team OSRF is confident that the forthcoming second generation of ROS, called ROS 2, will be used heavily in developing software and supporting systems for autonomous vehicles. In addition to this donation, TRI is also participating in a two-year research agreement on a variety of projects with the Open Source Robotics Corporation (OSRC). This is a for-profit subsidiary of OSRF.

Software developers can use Gazebo to help with simulated testing to ensure their systems achieve a high level of safety in operation. Over the past year, two

major open source self-driving vehicle software systems were independently developed in the ROS community and released under an open source licence.

“Open source robotics software systems are becoming more pervasive in the automotive community. TRI is helping to enhance the quality and robustness of our systems to meet the needs of automotive users. TRI also enables us to conduct vital maintenance and updates on our public-facing services, which ensures our systems continue to be accessible and perform flawlessly,” said OSRF CEO, Brian Gerkey.