From the beginning, Robotnik has been committed to the ROS (Robot Operating System) ecosystem. Now, with ROS 2, the system evolves to adapt to more complex robots, capable of operating in dynamic environments and meeting the current demands of the industry: improved real-time performance, distributed architectures, and enhanced security and scalability. This article analyzes the main differences between ROS and ROS 2, along with their key advantages and features.

🟥IMPROVEMENTS OF ROS 2 OVER ROS 1

🔺Focus on Security: ROS 2 includes authentication and encryption mechanisms to ensure secure communications, a key feature for developing critical or sensitive applications.
🔺Cross-Platform Compatibility: Unlike its predecessor, ROS 2 natively supports major operating systems such as Linux, Windows, and macOS, expanding development possibilities.
🔺Improved Communication System: ROS 2 incorporates Fast RTPS as its new communication middleware, based on the DDS (Data Distribution Service) standard. This enables more robust and efficient communication between distributed nodes, with support for Quality of Service (QoS) policies and compatibility with various transport protocols.
🔺Higher Performance: ROS 2's architecture has been optimized to provide better real-time performance and greater scalability, overcoming the limitations of ROS 1.
🔺Multi-language Support: In addition to C++ and Python, ROS 2 also supports programming in Rust.

🟥ADVANTAGES OF ROS 2
Beyond the improvements over ROS 1, this robotic software development framework offers the following benefits for users:

🔺Reduced Time to Market: ROS 2 provides a comprehensive set of tools, libraries, and functionalities designed to facilitate the development of robotic applications. This allows developers to focus on the strategic aspects of their projects. As an open-source platform, it offers the flexibility to tailor the implementation to specific use cases and to customize it based on particular user requirements.

🔺Industrial-Grade Design: With over a decade of experience that made ROS 1 the global benchmark for R&D in robotics, ROS 2 has been developed with a focus on industrial standards, placing special emphasis on the reliability and safety these standards require.

🔺Industry Support: As evidenced by the participation of the ROS 2 Technical Steering Committee, the industry's support for ROS 2 is strong. Companies of all sizes around the world, including Robotnik, are committed to contributing open-source code to ROS 2 and developing products based on it.

🔺Based on Open Standards: ROS 2's default communication method uses industry standards such as IDL, DDS, and DDS-I RTPS, which are already widely implemented across various industrial applications, from manufacturing to aerospace.

🔺Permissive Open Source License: ROS 2 is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License, while parts of ROS 1 are under the 3-clause BSD license (or "new" BSD). Both licenses allow legal use of the software without affecting the user's intellectual property.

🟥WHY MIGRATE YOUR ROBOT FROM ROS 1 TO ROS 2?
Robotnik remains committed to ROS as the leading open-source robotics software. With Open Robotics announcing that ROS 1 Noetic will no longer be supported as of May 2025, the company recommends migrating to ROS 2 as soon as possible.
If you own a Robotnik robot, we can assist you with the migration to ROS 2. Find all the relevant information and the contact form to reach our team with any related questions in the link below: