Author: Dawson Burgess, Computer Science Department, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, United States
Email: [email protected]

This repository contains the research paper "Survey of Open-Source Robotics Frameworks," which explores the current state and challenges of open-source robotics frameworks. The paper focuses on four key themes:

• Complexity: Challenges in managing the growing complexity of robotic systems.
• Standardization: Efforts and obstacles in achieving standardized protocols and models.
• Security: Emerging concerns and solutions for securing robotics software.
• Sustainability: The long-term viability and health of open-source robotics communities.

The survey reviews frameworks such as ROS, YARP, RoboComp, and others, analyzing trends, identifying gaps, and suggesting directions for future research and development in the field.

• Complexity remains a persistent challenge, with integration difficulties still prevalent.
• Standardization efforts have seen limited success due to diverse hardware and development goals.
• Security has gained significant attention recently, driven by vulnerabilities in open-source code.
• Sustainability is under-explored, raising concerns about community maintenance and funding.

This survey examines the current state and evolution of open-source robotics frameworks, focusing on four critical themes: complexity, standardization, security, and sustainability. By reviewing references from Robot Operating System to emerging tools and simulators, this paper reveals that complexity remains a core challenge with integration difficulties persisting despite incremental improvements. Attempts at standardization have made limited progress due to heterogeneous hardware platforms and varying development goals. Recent years have seen a sharp increase in attention to security concerns. These concerns are driven by the recognition of code vulnerabilities and the growing importance of the current strategy strategy. In contrast to security, sustainability—the long-term health of these open ecosystems—remains under-explored. This lack of attention raises concerns about the maintenance of active communities, funding, and relevance. By identifying these trends and gaps, this survey aims to provide insights into where future research and collaborative efforts can advance the reliability, usability, and impact of open-source robotics frameworks.

The full paper can be downloaded here.

The paper includes the following figures:

• Figure 1: References Addressing Each Theme
• Figure 2: Adoption vs. Documentation Quality for Selected Frameworks
• Figure 3: Temporal Evolution of Publications by Theme

Data for these figures is embedded within the paper.

If you find this paper useful, please cite it as:
Dawson Burgess. (2024). Survey of Open-Source Robotics Frameworks. University of Idaho.

For inquiries, please reach out to Dawson Burgess at [email protected] or [email protected].

Open-Source Robotics, Robotics Frameworks, Complexity Management, Standardization, Security in Robotics, Sustainability, Model-Driven Engineering, Interoperability, Community Engagement, Autonomous Systems

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.