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This is just an early brainstorm, nothing at all official!

ROS Platform Functionality Tiers

The concept is to define in a little more resolution what it means for a platform to "support ROS". There's a huge spectrum in those platforms listed on the Robots page; the purpose of this document (to become an REP if there is sufficient interest) would be to provide greater clarity of expectations between vendors/maintainers and users as far as what level of ROS functionality a particular platform provides.

For maintainers, it helps identify gaps, provides a roadmap of what the "next step" is for their platform software. In representation to users, descriptions could be used such as "Tier 2 compliance", "Partial Tier 3 compliance", "Expected full Tier 3 compliance for Indigo".

There would be no certification body or process.

These guidelines are about functionality and are orthogonal to code quality. For that, please see Industrial/Software_Status.

Tier 1: Connectivity

The bare minimum to talk to a platform with ROS; will require setup effort and additional configuration to use standard ROS capabilities. Software may be out of date and require porting or adaptation.

Tier 2: Applications

At this level, basic capabilities work out of the box, once the platform setup is complete. Platform-specific messages and topics are expected to be stable and consistent with ROS wiki documentation.

Tier 3: User Experience

This level mandates certain standard package names and launch files, as well as file system organization details and ability for a user to restore their platform's computer with minimal hassle.

Packages

Infrastructure

Tier 4: Simulation

Future?


2024-03-23 12:19