Orocos

Project-wide pages

Simple TCP client using non-periodic component

Rationale

Problem: You want a component that connects to a remote TCP server, and reads data from it (this example could easily write, instead of reading). This component will block for varying amounts of time when reading.

Solution: Use a non-periodic component. Click below to read the rest of this post.

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Publications

If you want to cite Orocos software in your publications, you can use the following BibTex entries:

RTT

@Misc{            rtt-url,
  author        = {Soetens, P.},
  title         = {{RTT}: {R}eal-{T}ime {T}oolkit},
  howpublished  = {\url{http://www.orocos.org/rtt}},
}
 
@InProceedings{bruyninckx-icra2003,
  author        = {Bruyninckx, Herman and Soetens, Peter and Koninckx, Bob},
  title         = {The Real-Time Motion Control Core of the {O}rocos
        Project},
  booktitle     = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation},
  pages    ... Click below to read the rest of this post.
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Orocos Licenses

 From day one Orocos has been 'industry friendly'. Orocos is Free Software, but any
 application (or component) derived from it remains property of the creator. 
 In no case an application builder is required to pay a licensing fee for Orocos software.
Proper licensing is in place to support this licensing model.

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History

Orocos Project History

Orocos stands for "Open RObot Control Software". (In non-robotics contexts, "Open Realtime Control Services" might be a more appropriate name.)

The Orocos Logo: The Orocos logo resembles the letter 'O' which stands for 'Open'. It is formed by two robotic grippers which reach to each other, symbolising collaboration. The author of this version of the logo was Anthony Mallet, from LAAS in Toulouse, France.

The idea for starting a Free Software project for robot control was born in December 2000, as an idea of Herman Bruyninckx, motivated by over two decades of rather disappointing experiences in trying to use commercial robot control software for advanced robotics research. The disappointments were invariably caused by the lack of access to the deepest layers of the hardware control, hence making sensor-based control extensions ineffective and inefficient, to say the least.

The idea of an "open" control framework, together with a draft of a possible project proposal, was launched on the mailinglist of EURON, the European Robotics Network. This email gave rise to a lot of responses, even though it was sent during the Christmas period. Within about two weeks, a proposal (which became IST-2000-31064) was made ready, and sent to the European Union. Contacts with the responsible Officer made clear that the size of the project had to be very modest, so that only three partners were selected: K.U.Leuven in Belgium ( Orocos@KUL ), LAAS Toulouse in France ( Orocos@LAAS ), and KTH Stockholm in Sweden ( Orocos@KTH ). Each of these three groups would later receive only one full man-year of support. The EU-sponsored project started in September 2001, and had a duration for two years. At KU Leuven, this funding was complemented by a Flemish IWT project, with three high-end machine tool builders (Bekaert, LVD and Vandewiele), who wanted a realtime Linux-based alternative to their proprietary machine control software. This combination of projects allowed Herman Bruyninckx to hire Peter Soetens as a PhD student, to work full-time on the design and first implementation.

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