ROS 2 for VxWorks Developer Brief

Build New Robotic Applications for Real-Time Systems and Small Embedded Platforms

Use of robotics is growing throughout various sectors, from industrial and medical to warehousing, retail, and more. As these new use cases are imagined and created, more application developer resources and tools are needed. Robotic uses are evolving into areas where real-time systems, embedded platforms, robots connected with teams, and more are required. Wind River® has a reputation for providing the foundation for real-time, embedded systems with its VxWorks® real-time operating system that has operated the Mars rovers, airline jets, medical devices, factory robots, and innovative embedded equipment.

To enable new robotic use cases, the developer community has begun to use Robotic Operating System (ROS), and now that has developed into ROS 2. The ROS 2 change brought a significant API change to ROS with the intent to support real-time programming and a wider variety of computing environments and to utilize more modern technology. ROS 2 consists of a set of software libraries and tools that aid in building robotic applications. ROS 2 is a re-architecture of the original ROS framework in order to include support for new use cases.

Wind River has created a developer project, ROS 2 for VxWorks. While ROS 2 is not a part of any VxWorks product, the ROS 2 for VxWorks project provides custom modifications and build scripts to integrate the ROS 2 framework into VxWorks 7. If a robotics application developer would like to take advantage of the real-time, embedded benefits of the VxWorks real-time operating system, the developer can get more information and download details by visiting the ROS 2 for VxWorks page on the Wind River Labs web page. For specific questions regarding ROS 2 for VxWorks, visit the Wind River sales inquiry site for assistance.