Robohub.org
 

Introducing H-ROS: the Hardware Robot Operating System


by
20 October 2016



share this:
h_ros3

I’m delighted to announce a new game-changing standard for building robot hardware components: H-ROS (the Hardware Robot Operating System). H-ROS provides manufacturers tools for building interoperable robot components that can easily be exchanged or replaced between robots. H-ROS is about supporting a common environment of robot hardware components, where manufacturers comply with standard interfaces built upon the popular Robot Operating System (ROS).

h-ros1Powered by ROS and built with industry and developers in mind, H-ROS classifies robot components in 5 types: sensing — used to perceive the world; actuation — allowing interaction with the environment; communication — providing a means of interconnection; cognition — the brain of the robot and hybrid; and the components that group together different sub-components under a common interface. These building-block-style parts come as reusable and reconfigurable components, allowing developers to easily upgrade their robots with hardware from different manufacturers, and add new features in seconds.

Motivation and origin:

Building a robot is tricky. Therefore, it makes sense to reuse existing work in an effort to reduce complexity. Unfortunately, nowadays there are few projects, either in industry or academy, that reuse hardware. Robots are generally built by multidisciplinary teams (generally a whole research group or company division), and different engineers get involved in the mechanical, electrical and logical design. Most of the time is spent dealing with the hardware/software interfaces, and little effort is put into behavior development or real-world scenarios.

fasttrackprogram

Existing hardware platforms—although becoming more common—lack extensibility. Examples can be seen in several commercial and industrial robots that hit the market recently, and already include a common software infrastructure (generally the Robot Operating System(ROS)) but lack of a hardware standard.

With H-ROS, building robots will be about placing H-ROS-compatible hardware components together to build new robot configurations. Constructing robots will no longer be restricted to a small elite with high technical skills. It will be extended to the wider majority with a general understanding of the sensing and actuation needed for a particular scenario.

H-ROS was initially funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) through the Robotics Fast Track program in 2016 and developed by Erle Robotics.

H-ROS was showcased and presented officially at ROSCon 2016 (October 8th-9th) in Seoul, South Korea, and is now available for selected industry partners and will soon be released for the wider robotics community.

Click here for the official H-ROS website



tags: , ,


Víctor Mayoral Vilches is one of the founders of Erle Robotics and an ex-researcher in the field of robotics...
Víctor Mayoral Vilches is one of the founders of Erle Robotics and an ex-researcher in the field of robotics...





Related posts :



Robot Talk Episode 125 – Chatting with robots, with Gabriel Skantze

  13 Jun 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Gabriel Skantze from KTH Royal Institute of Technology about having natural face-to-face conversations with robots.

Preparing for kick-off at RoboCup2025: an interview with General Chair Marco Simões

and   12 Jun 2025
We caught up with Marco to find out what exciting events are in store at this year's RoboCup.

Interview with Amar Halilovic: Explainable AI for robotics

  10 Jun 2025
Find out about Amar's research investigating the generation of explanations for robot actions.

Robot Talk Episode 124 – Robots in the performing arts, with Amy LaViers

  06 Jun 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Amy LaViers from the Robotics, Automation, and Dance Lab about the creative relationship between humans and machines.

Robot Talk Episode 123 – Standardising robot programming, with Nick Thompson

  30 May 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Nick Thompson from BOW about software that makes robots easier to program.

Congratulations to the #AAMAS2025 best paper, best demo, and distinguished dissertation award winners

  29 May 2025
Find out who won the awards presented at the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems last week.

Congratulations to the #ICRA2025 best paper award winners

  27 May 2025
The winners and finalists in the different categories have been announced.

#ICRA2025 social media round-up

  23 May 2025
Find out what the participants got up to at the International Conference on Robotics & Automation.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence