SIGs/Robotics

Fedora Robotics Special Interest Group

Mission

The Fedora Robotics SIG's main objective is to make Fedora the premier distribution for robotics development. The SIG focuses on packaging free and open source software spanning a large variety of uses. These packages vary from libraries that enable sensor communication, frameworks that provide a basis for robot programming, and educational tools for the budding roboticist. Our hope is to make Fedora fit to power (mobile) robots.

Members

• Tim Niemueller
• Jeff Spaleta
• Arindam Ghosh
• Hedayat Vatankhah
• Rich Mattes

Communication

• Mailing list: Fedora Robotics List
• IRC: #fedora-robotics freenode
• Meeting minutes: All - Last (2009-10-15)

Next Meeting

Check the Meetings page for the next meeting's agenda.

Tasks

• Package Player/Stage/Gazebo (rmattes, makghosh, timn)
  • Player and Stage done, Gazebo in progress (rmattes)
• Package CARMEN (timn)
  • Requires modification of buildsystem, and possibly fixing use of deprecated ImageMagick functionality (rmattes)
• Package NBC/NXT (jspaleta)
• Find more interesting packages and interested packagers
• Create Fedora robotics spin with Player/Stage/Gazebo simulated demo
• Create Demos for the Robotics Spin

Packages

Package Wishlist

This is a list of packages the SIG would like to see in Fedora. It serves as a to-do list for the group, and as a forum for interested parties to add suggestions for what they'd like to see in Fedora.

• Gazebo (rmattes), 3D robotics simulator from the Player project
• Carmen (timn, makghosh), Carnegie Mellon Robot Navigation Toolkit
• Pyrobot (makghosh), Python-based robotics simulation environment
• NBC/NXC (jspaleta), Simple language to program NXT robots
• CMU IPC Library (rmattes), CMU's Inter-Process Communication Library (used in Carmen)
• Orca (rmattes), A component-based robotic framework
• OpenJaus (rmattes), An open BSD licensed implementation of the JAUS protocols
• Paparazzi (timn) Open-source autopilot system for model aircraft
• ROS (hedayat), Robot Operating System
• Julius Speech recognition engine

Pending review requests

These packages are still under review, feel free to help test and review them for inclusion in Fedora!

• assimp - Library to import various 3D model formats into applications (required for Gazebo)

Accepted packages

These are packages that have been prepared and submitted by SIG members. They are all now included in Fedora's repositories.

• player - Cross-platform robot device interface and server
• rcssserver3d - RoboCup Soccer Simulation Server 3D
• rcssbase - Robocup 2D Soccer Simulation Base Library
• rcssmonitor - RoboCup 2D Soccer Simulator Monitor
• rcssserver - Robocup 2D Soccer Simulation Server
• rcsslogplayer - RoboCup Soccer Simulator LogPlayer
• MRPT - The Mobile Robot Programming Toolkit.
• libkni3 - C++ library für the Katana robot arm
• urg - Library to access Hokuyo URG laser range finders
• stage - A 2.5D multi-robot simulator
• gearbox - A collection of usable peer-reviewed robotics-related libraries
• libphidget - Drivers and API for Phidget device
• fawkes - Robot Software Framework

Software we will not package

If you want to get involved you could start investigating the code and maybe revive the upstream project! The postponed packages could be packaged later but the have a lower priority as decided by the SIG. (Probably) Won't package:

• RobotFlow (makghosh), Mobile robotics toolkit based on FlowDesign
  • (timn): upstream looks dead for several years, probably not a good idea
  • (makghosh): +1, so it goes down the list and maybe moved out if there is no further upstream
  • (rmattes): Last commit January 2006, Dead Project?
• MARIE (makghosh), Component-based robotics framework
  • (timn): no upstream release for a long time, wiki page vandalized, had commits this year though
  • (rmattes): Last commit Jan 2008, Dead Project?
• Simbad (makghosh) Java-based 3-D robotics simulator
  • (rmattes): Last commit July 2007, Dead Project?
• Python NXT (jspaleta), Python package for controlling the NXT
  • (rmattes): Requires Python 2.4, may not work with 2.6

ChangeLog

• 2010/11/08 rmattes: Removed already-packaged software, moved meeting agenda to Meetings page, updated mission statement.
• 2010/11/05 Hedayat: Added ROS to the list of interesting software pending for someone to take over
• 2010/11/01 rmattes: Libphidget accepted, Fawkes under review, added preliminary agenda for next meeting
• 2010/09/20 rmattes: Added new packages under review, removed packaged software from Interesting Software list
• 2010/03/12, rmattes: Updated status of Stage and Gearbox packages
• 2010/02/11, rmattes: Added Demos page to Tasks list
• 2010/02/04, rmattes: Updated review pending and accepted packages lists, added next meeting time
• 2009/11/10, rmattes: Added some more projects to the proposed package list, removed Myro
• 2009/10/17, timn: Added meeting minutes for 2009-10-15
• 2009/10/12, timn: Scheduled next meeting, added link to Fawkes.
• 2009/10/07, rmattes: Added IPC and Myro to list of interesting packages.
• 2009/07/11, jlblanco: Added mrpt to list of robotics packages already accepted in Fedora.
• 2008/10/04, Hedayat: Updating packages' status (rcssserver and rcsslogplayer)
• 2008/09/12, Hedayat: Updating packages' status (as I know!)
• 2008/06/18, timn: Third meeting, more packages up for review
• 2008/05/22, timn: Second meeting. Decided that we focus on Player/Stage/Gazebo to get a demo up and running to attract more people, see for details
• 2008/05/16, Hedayat: Added myself to the page and picked up Robocup Soccer Server packaging, added mailing list link
• 2008/05/07, timn: First IRC meeting, player/stage/gazebo will be the first package project, see for log
• 2008/05/03, timn: After discussion with JefSpaleta found the Fedora Robotics SIG.