What to expect from the ROS 2 Event Showcases

ROS 2 is being discussed across world conferences in 2025

Geoffrey Biggs, Chief Technology Officer of the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF), has recently started on his world event tour to promote the benefits and outline the future of The Robot Operating System, or ROS.

At the upcoming Robotics Summit & Expo, scheduled for April 30 and May 1, 2025, in Boston, Biggs is set to deliver a presentation on how ROS 2 has been increasingly utilized in commercial products and services. His talk will highlight ROS 2's successes across diverse fields, including warehouse robotics, in-factory transportation, long-term ocean research, delivery drones, hotel delivery, hospital automation, and even applications aboard the International Space Station. He will also emphasize how ROS 2 enables robotic developers to leverage the work of hundreds of engineers, significantly reducing the investment required compared to building systems from scratch.

This will likely have a direct impact on software engineering teams and talent currently supporting the development of these systems but how far and deep that will go remains to be seen.

In a recent presentation titled "Setting ROS up for the long-term: Changes at the OSRF for more sustainable open-source robotics," Biggs discussed significant changes within OSRF aimed at ensuring the long-term sustainability of projects like ROS, Gazebo, and Open-RMF. This is great news for talent expanding their skills sets and exposures to these technologies and organisations looking to invest in this development pathway.

Additionally, in a podcast episode of Zetta Radio, Biggs reflected on the evolution of ROS since its inception in 2012. He noted that ROS has grown into a massive project with thousands of users and hundreds of companies building products on it, including industry giants like Bosch, Sony, and Amazon, as well as numerous startups and research organizations. 

The future of AMR technology and skills required to support it is a picture that is yet to be complete but one things for sure is that ROS 2 will move the needle again and Geoffrey Briggs, will be best placed to point it in the right direction.