NCS Robotics adding security robot capabilities to Open-RMF

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NCS Robotics is working with Open Robotics to extend the Open Robotics Middleware Framework (Open-RMF) capabilities to support security robot use cases. The extended capabilities not only enable RMF to be applied beyond its initial set of use cases but also further drive interoperability of heterogeneous fleets of robotics systems. 

The two teams worked for four months to improve and add specific open-source features available in Open-RMF for the global robotics ecosystem. The new features include live video streaming, enabling live video streams from robots to video clients or video management systems, and teleoperation, allowing users to remotely control security robots.

Other new features include event notifications that allow for robot-triggered events to be sent to other third-party systems like the dashboard of a command post, customized tasks to allow developers to define specific tasks for robots that have additional payload capabilities and GPS coordinate support for outdoor robots and autonomous vehicles. 

“Collaboration with NCS is a key milestone in the development roadmap of Open-RMF to further demonstrate industry adoption and platform interoperability,” Matthew Festo, general manager of Open Robotics Singapore, said. “The extended open-source capabilities being developed and incorporated in Open-RMF will work seamlessly with NCS robotmanager platform — directly benefiting their customers while also being a part of the core open-source libraries available to the global robotics community.”

NCS robotmanager is a fleet manager platform powered by artificial intelligence. The platform can help supervise, control and orchestrate different brands and types of robots at scale. Robotmanager provides a seamless command and control user interface for all robot types, which allows for simpler integration, operation and maintenance. 

Brian Gerkey, the CEO and co-founder of Open Robotics and one of the creators of ROS, was recently a guest on The Robot Report Podcast. He discussed the development and evolution of ROS and why open-source software has played such a pivotal role in the growth of the robotics industry and in the acceleration of robotics research in university and corporate robotic labs around the world. You can listen to the interview with Gerkey below.