I'm looking to control a ground vehicle and would possibly like to use OROCOS or ROS as the base for control. What are the differences, if any, folks have experienced between the two? Applied decision theory, sensor fusion and control would be needed.
Do you need something quick and easy (=>ROS) or do you need hard real-time control (=>OROCOS)?
Although I'm not very much into OROCOS, I wouldn't agree with the previous response. First, ROS is not easy :) I think the purpose of ROS and OROCOS is different, while ROS is more generic OROCOS is focused on control.
The Open Robot Control Software (Orocos) project combines both the
component-based and object-oriented reusability strategies. The project has yielded
four C++ libraries, two geared toward each strategy. The Real-Time Toolkit (RTT)
and Orocos Component Library (OCL) establish a component-based infrastructure
and a library of ready-to-use components, providing the high level management of
interactions within an application. Components exchange information primarily
through abstracted Data-Flow Ports, an anonymous publish-subscribe system in
which a component does not know where its inputs are originating or where its
outputs are being utilized. These Data-Flow Ports may be either buffered, in which
case messages are stored in a single queue per link, or unbuffered, in which case only 6
the most recent message is available to be read by any subscribers. This
decomposition and isolation of the components enables easier specification of the
interactions taking place within the software and easier validation of individual
components, because this organization is conducive to generating test inputs and
examining the resulting outputs.
Robot Operating System (ROS)
ROS is an open source robot software platform designed with the primary
goal of enabling software reuse. It is intended to be a thin architecture, providing
sufficiently few constraints as to be integrable with software written for other
platforms, such as Orocos and Player [10]. Like Orocos, it employs both the
component-based and object-oriented reusability strategies. ROS provides the
infrastructure for writing software components, called nodes, and for exchanging 12
information between these nodes via an anonymous publish-subscribe model2
.
Message transport between nodes occurs via TCP/IP or UDP/IP, thus allowing the
nodes to be easily distributed over multiple computers. This networking style allows
for individual components (which are separate processes) to be shut down, modified,
recompiled, and re-initiated without interrupting the function of the rest of the
application. Similar to Orocos, the ROS developers recognized that this form of
continuous data streaming is not appropriate for all interactions, and thus
implemented a message-response form for command-style interactions.
See the following report regarding ros and orocos
http://singularityhub.com/2010/11/08/publish-monday-robot-operating-system-celebrates-3rd-birthday-with-exponential-growth-video/
Dear Seddik, it's possible to have the referenced document of your response or the link to it? Thanks!
Let me call your attention to other options to component-based approaches that can be utilized in robotics projects. The RT-Middleware OMG standard and its open implementation the openRTM-aist ( http://openrtm.org/ ) offers an easy to use component framework.
Powered by the RTM, VirCA ( www.virca.hu ) provides a 3D virtual world for RTM-based systems that can be used as advanced user interface, simulation, virtual sensoring and various other purposes.
Using gateway components ( http://virca.hu/vircapedia/current/index.php/ROS_-_RTM_gateway ) , it is also possible to mix ROS and RTM components in one system.
If anyone has question or idea about VirCA do not hesitate to contact me.
Seddik, thanks for the detailed synopsis of each. Sounds like both are developed for reuse and utilize some sort of publish/subscribe communication mechanism, and are open source. It also sounds like each make use of common protocols like TCP & UDP, etc.
Are there decision theory algorithm implementations in each? I see that there's a BIC and BFL libs with ROS and a BFL available with Orocos. What decision methods like DST, DSMT, etc are implemented, if any?
Thanks...
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