Points to touch:
Is not Google but Intrinsic
Is not ROS but the branch of Open Robotics
What does all that mean?
What could be the implications for the future of ROS and its community?
Intro
In December of 2022, big news shocked the ROS community: ROS was acquired by Intrinsic
In this episode of the Robotics Insider we are going to discuss:
What actually happened and why?
What can this mean for the future of ROS?
Why does it matter for the ROS community?
All those points and more on the first episode of the Robotics Insider podcast.
What is Intrinsic
Intrinsic is a robotics software company with the idea of making industrial robots easy to use by means of easy interfaces and applications (not about creating easier industrial robots, but better usage software).
Wendy Tan, CEO of Intrinsic says:
We aim to build a platform that connects the providers of automation hardware and software — think equipment providers, or AI and machine learning experts — with businesses who need custom manufacturing solutions. With intuitive software, AI-enabled solution development and scalable infrastructure, more people will be able to build, design and deploy robotic applications to solve problems in ways they couldn’t before
Make industrial robot programming available, highly effective option for non-experts
From the web on Intrinsic:
To build a software platform for intelligent robotics; one that brings together the best of our collective capabilities and makes them usable for others
Intrinsic started as a group of people inside the X lab of Google. They did some pretty impressive systems that can plug/unplug USB cables, mount furniture and even mount architectural pieces. Then in 2021 graduated from Alphabet and became an independent company part of the Alphabet ecosystem with the name of Intrinsic.
Then in 2022 they acquired Vicarious, a company about using AI to automate tasks that are too complex to be automated by traditional means.
Then in December of 2022, Intrinsic acquired the Open Source Robotics Corporation, that is, the business part of Open Robotics.
So the first part of the title of this podcast is wrong: Google did not acquire ROS, but Intrinsic acquired ROS.
What is the structure of Open Robotics
For those who don’t know, Open Robotics is the company behind the development of ROS.
Open Robotics is composed of two parts:
The Open Source Robotics Foundation
The Open Source Robotics Corporation
OSRF is the one that holds the copyright of ROS, gazebo, Turtlebot, ROSCon and Open-RMF
OSRC is the one that does commercial projects, and dedicates time to develop and maintain parts of ROS, Gazebo and others. Also, OSRC has two parts, the OSRC which is mainly based in California, and the OSRC-SG based in Singapore and which is the one leading the development of Open-RMF
What has Intrinsic actually acquired
Intrinsic has acquired the OSRC and the OSRC-SG
Intrinsic has not bought the OSRF, the branch that has the IP of ROS, Gazebo and Open-RMF.
So what this means is that ROS, Gazebo, ROSCon, Open-RMF and Turtlebot are not part of the sale. They remain part of the OSRF and do not belong to Intrinsic.
So the second part of the title of this podcast is also not true: nobody has acquired ROS
If Intrinsic is buying only the OSRC which doesn’t hold the IP of ROS: What is Intrinsic actually getting on the sale and why?
It is not clear to me. As far as I can see, they are getting the team that developed the ROS and OSRC current projects business. They are getting the know how.
Why is Intrinsic buying it?
In my opinion,
