Clearpath Robotics, a company specializing in unmanned vehicle robotics, has announced the launch of ROS Consulting, a service offering that provides support and advice to corporations undertaking research and development initiatives using the Robot Operating System (ROS). Ten percent of revenues from the program will be donated to the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) by Clearpath in an effort to ensure that ROS remains free and available to robotics developers around the world.
A longstanding leader in the open source community and an early adopter of ROS, Clearpath Robotics is capable of recognizing how to best leverage ROS for enterprise-level research and development projects. The company specializes in system architecture, driver development and maintenance, and ROS-based product development and training. Clearpath’s ROS Consulting program offers flexible contracts to customers.
“We have used ROS and offered ROS support for our products since Clearpath’s inception,” said Julian Ware, General Manager for Research Products at Clearpath Robotics. “We help organizations advance their research and development projects, so it was a natural progression that we offer our ROS expertise to growing organizations in a way that will benefit the open source community as a whole.”
ROS is a flexible framework for writing robot software. Most of the ROS libraries are open-source and available for the public to use and enhance, thus assisting in the steady advancement of robotics development. Customers who engage in Clearpath’s ROS Consulting program are encouraged to share their development back into the open source community.
“I’m not sure which is greater: Clearpath’s commitment to the open source ROS community, or their expertise in developing, deploying, and servicing ROS,” according to Brian Gerkey, CEO at Open Source Robotics Foundation. “Clearpath was the first field robotics company to fully adopt and support ROS and we are very pleased to support their launch of ROS Consulting.”
