Stepping into the Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore for ROSCon 2025 is an experience that resonates long after the final keynote. The vibrant hum of conversation, the whirring of autonomous systems, and the palpable energy of innovation converging from every corner of the globe paint a clear picture: this is where the future of robotics is actively being built. As highlighted in the accompanying video, ROSCon is far more than a series of presentations; it’s a dynamic confluence of brilliant minds, pioneering technologies, and an unparalleled community spirit.
From the cutting-edge exhibits showcasing everything from intricate low-level sensors to expansive cloud solutions, to the hands-on workshops like the deep dive into Isaac Sim by Nvidia’s Ayush and Raffaello, or Zettascale’s Julian demystifying Zenoh, the event is a masterclass in modern robotics. Even unofficial exhibits, such as Oedo Dynamics’ audacious tele-operation of an excavator in Japan via Starlink from a casual laptop setup, underscore the boundless ingenuity prevalent among attendees. However, the true heartbeat of ROSCon lies in its people – the developers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and independent roboticists who shape the Robot Operating System (ROS) ecosystem.
Diving into Diverse Contributions and ROS Use Cases
The strength of ROS lies not only in its robust framework but in its astonishingly diverse application. Interviews from ROSCon 2025 reveal this breadth, showcasing how individuals and organizations leverage ROS to push the boundaries of what’s possible in robotics. For instance, Kimberly McGuire, an independent roboticist, actively fosters the Error Robotics community group, inviting open-source contributors to share their projects. Furthermore, her specialized contribution to core ROS packages, particularly the Windows install, addresses a niche yet critical need, streamlining development for a broader user base often overlooked by the Linux-centric community.
Angelo Corsaro, co-founder, CEO, and CTO of Zettascale, articulates a fundamental challenge Zenoh aims to solve: ubiquitous communication. Zenoh facilitates seamless data exchange from compact microcontrollers to expansive data centers, transcending traditional constraints. This capability is pivotal for next-generation distributed robotic systems, where real-time, efficient communication across heterogenous platforms is non-negotiable. It addresses latency and bandwidth challenges inherent in complex robotic deployments, an area where previous technologies often fell short.
Sebastian Castro from the Robotics and AI Institute (Ray Institute) emphasizes ROS’s utility in manipulation research. Here, ROS acts as the foundational layer, orchestrating driver setups and low-level controllers. This robust abstraction allows researchers to focus on higher-level problems like skill learning and policy execution. His personal use of ROS for educational content, focusing on task planning and behavior composition, further illustrates its role as a powerful pedagogical tool for complex robotic concepts.
In the medical device sector, Deanna Hood, formerly of the ROS core team and now with Vexev, describes the use of ROS in an ultrasound scanning robot. This system autonomously collects data to generate 3D vasculature models, significantly aiding dialysis patients. This application underscores ROS’s potential in regulated environments, a point Deanna actively champions through the ROS Medical Community Group. Such initiatives are crucial for demonstrating ROS’s readiness for high-stakes applications beyond traditional R&D. Meanwhile, Yadunund Vijay, a software engineer at Intrinsic and a core PMC member for ROS 2 and Open RMF, focuses on enhancing user experience by simplifying ROS integration and deployment, contributing to RMW Zenoh and Arvis.
The Unifying Power of the ROS Community
A recurring sentiment among all interviewees is the profound appreciation for the ROS community. Yadunund Vijay, Kimberly McGuire, Sebastian Castro, Deanna Hood, and Angelo Corsaro uniformly cite the community as one of ROS’s greatest strengths. Yadunund describes it as one of the “most inclusive and vibrant communities” he has encountered, where individuals from diverse backgrounds and expertise levels converge to collaborate. This inclusivity fosters an environment where knowledge sharing is paramount, significantly accelerating development cycles.
Deanna Hood’s experience perfectly exemplifies this collaborative ethos. When working on sensor fusion for her medical device, she notes that someone else, in a completely different context, had likely already tackled a similar problem. This ability to “leverage their work and their willingness to share” is a cornerstone of open-source development and a distinct advantage of the ROS ecosystem. The collective effort means developers aren’t reinventing the wheel, but rather building upon a continuously expanding library of robust, community-validated solutions. Angelo Corsaro further reinforces this, highlighting the “incredible amount of tools and an incredible number of users and applications” as a testament to the community’s impact.
Sebastian Castro points to ROS’s ability to facilitate complex multi-process, multi-language systems, seamlessly integrating C++ and Python nodes. Kimberly McGuire, reflecting on her journey from ROS 1 over a decade ago to ROS 2 three years prior, notes the significant evolution of the community alongside the framework’s increased complexity and documentation. This collective connection, forged through a shared framework and collaborative spirit, helps mitigate the inherent challenges of developing for ROS.
Navigating the Hurdles: Addressing ROS Challenges
Despite its many advantages, ROS development is not without its challenges. Interviewees candidly shared aspects they believe could be improved, offering valuable insights for the community’s future direction.
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Steep Learning Curve: Yadunund Vijay, initially a mechatronics engineer, candidly admits to a steep learning curve. He highlights the necessity of grasping fundamentals like computers, networks, terminals, compilers, and linkers before fully leveraging ROS. This initial barrier to entry can be daunting for newcomers, indicating a need for more streamlined educational pathways and developer onboarding processes.
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Addressing Negative Connotations: Deanna Hood is actively working to dispel the “negative connotations” associating ROS solely with research and early-stage R&D. Her work at Vexev, aiming for FDA submission with ROS 2 in medical devices, challenges the stigma that ROS-based solutions lack the quality or robustness for highly regulated applications. This battle against perception is crucial for expanding ROS adoption into critical industries, where reliability and certification are paramount.
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Ecosystem Integration: Angelo Corsaro expresses an “egoistic request” for improved support and integration for the Rust ecosystem. As Rust gains traction for its memory safety and performance, its seamless integration with ROS becomes increasingly important for developers targeting high-reliability and low-latency applications.
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Developer Experience: Sebastian Castro underscores the need for improved developer experience. While modern tools often offer simple `pip install X` solutions, ROS, due to its legacy and handling of complex use cases, remains more intricate to install and use. This points to a continuous community effort to balance the inherent complexity of robotics with the need for modern, user-friendly tooling, as evidenced by discussions at ROSCon itself.
The Unmistakable Value of ROSCon
ROSCon stands as a unique event precisely because it bridges the gap between technical advancements and community connection. Sebastian Castro aptly describes it as the perfect “down the line between the community aspect and the technical aspect.” Beyond the organized talks, the informal gatherings, like the recurring karaoke hangouts, foster invaluable personal connections among developers who often only interact via pull requests. These face-to-face interactions are vital for strengthening the bonds within the global ROS ecosystem.
Technically, ROSCon is where the latest innovations debut. Developers like Sebastian often “scramble to put together new packages and new features” specifically to present at the event, ensuring attendees receive information “fresh.” Yadunund Vijay highlights the “state of ROS” talks as particularly exciting, providing crucial updates on core OSRF projects like ROS, Gazebo, Open RMF, and ROS 2 Controls. These annual updates, a tradition since Odense, keep the community informed about significant changes and future directions, ensuring alignment and continuous progress. The growing integration of ROS into industrial robot controllers, as noted by Yadunund, signifies its increasing maturity and real-world impact.
Kimberly McGuire’s experience exemplifies the event’s practical value. Despite her expertise in ROS 2 on Windows, she unexpectedly found a thriving community of Windows developers at ROSCon. This led to invaluable insights, including tips for WSL 2 and GPU pass-through, directly improving her workflow. The ability to learn from peers, gain inspiration, and discover solutions to niche challenges is a hallmark of the ROSCon experience. Angelo Corsaro echoes this, emphasizing the technical presentations and the exchange with the community as the “best part” – leading to insights into “new uses of our technology, potentially new needs, new application.” Deanna Hood cherishes ROSCon for the opportunity to “nerd out about robotics” and interact with more experienced roboticists, a rare luxury for those in remote or lead roles. It offers not just technical nourishment but also “social nourishment,” connecting individuals facing similar professional challenges.
Charting the Future: Exciting Trajectories in Robotics
The future of robotics, as envisioned by ROSCon attendees, is teeming with transformative potential, largely driven by the convergence of AI, machine learning, and increasingly sophisticated hardware. There’s a consensus that the industry is at an inflection point, with ROS poised to play a pivotal role.
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The “ChatGPT Moment” for Robotics: Yadunund Vijay asserts that “robotics is on the cusp of its ChatGPT moment.” He sees the integration of advancements from the LLM world, particularly the collection of robot demonstration data, as enabling the development of general-purpose models. This new frontier, ripe for innovation, could unlock next-generation applications. ROS, with its modular architecture and extensive tools, is ideally positioned to accelerate the research and deployment of these AI-driven robotic solutions.
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Maturing AI Tools: Kimberly McGuire, while wary of potential “bubbles” in AI hype, is excited about AI tools becoming more mature and “easily integratable into existing solutions and more proven like on the in the real world.” She observes that techniques heard about long ago, such as those leveraging PyTorch, are now stable enough for robust system integration projects. This shift from theoretical promise to practical, reliable implementation is critical for widespread adoption.
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Scaling Mobile Robotics and AI Intersection: Angelo Corsaro anticipates significant scaling out of mobile robotic applications, particularly those presenting complex communication challenges. The interplay between robotics and AI, he believes, will yield “very interesting things in the next two to three years.” This highlights a future where pervasive, intelligent mobile robots become increasingly common, requiring advanced communication middleware like Zenoh to manage their distributed nature.
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Breaking Barriers in Medical Devices: Deanna Hood is invigorated by the prospect of breaking the misconception that ROS is incompatible with medical devices. She believes that once this “wall comes down,” many more life-changing devices can reach the market quickly, leveraging ROS’s inherent design for accelerating product development. This pioneering work in highly regulated fields could unlock immense humanitarian and economic value.
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Balanced AI Integration: Sebastian Castro shares enthusiasm for the increasing accessibility of robotics software, noting how easier programming can expose robotics to a wider audience. However, he also looks forward to the “AI hype cycle to come back down to a reasonable place.” His vision for the future involves a judicious blend of hand-engineered systems and AI-driven approaches, where developers are acutely aware of the pros and cons of each. This thoughtful, hybrid approach, he contends, will lead to “super, super capable” robots that combine the best of both paradigms, optimizing performance and reliability across diverse applications. The careful selection and integration of AI components within established ROS frameworks will be crucial for realizing this potential, moving beyond generalized enthusiasm to specific, impactful deployments.
Continuing the ROS Conversation: Your Questions Answered
What is ROSCon?
ROSCon is an annual conference where experts and enthusiasts gather to discuss and shape the future of robotics. It showcases new technologies and fosters collaboration within the Robot Operating System (ROS) community.
What is the Robot Operating System (ROS)?
ROS, or Robot Operating System, is a flexible software framework and set of tools that developers use to build robot applications. It provides a robust foundation for various robotics projects across many industries.
What are some common uses for ROS?
ROS is used for many different robotics applications, such as controlling robot movements, managing communication between different parts of a robot system, and even in advanced medical devices like ultrasound scanning robots.
Is ROS difficult for beginners to learn?
While ROS is powerful, it can have a steep learning curve for beginners, as it requires understanding concepts related to computers, networks, and programming. However, a strong community and better documentation are helping to streamline the learning process.
What is the ROS community like?
The ROS community is known for being very inclusive, vibrant, and collaborative. Members share knowledge, contribute to open-source projects, and help each other solve problems, which significantly speeds up development.