Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fischer, Tobias, Paredes, Isabel, Batchelor, Michael, Beier, Thorsten, Haviland, Jesse, Traversaro, Silvio, Vollprecht, Wolf, Schmitz, Markus, Milford, Michael
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.09941
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912263104888832
author Fischer, Tobias
Paredes, Isabel
Batchelor, Michael
Beier, Thorsten
Haviland, Jesse
Traversaro, Silvio
Vollprecht, Wolf
Schmitz, Markus
Milford, Michael
author_facet Fischer, Tobias
Paredes, Isabel
Batchelor, Michael
Beier, Thorsten
Haviland, Jesse
Traversaro, Silvio
Vollprecht, Wolf
Schmitz, Markus
Milford, Michael
contents The Robot Operating System (ROS) has become the de facto standard middleware in robotics, widely adopted across domains ranging from education to industrial applications. The RoboStack distribution, a conda-based packaging system for ROS, has extended ROS's accessibility by facilitating installation across all major operating systems and architectures, integrating seamlessly with scientific tools such as PyTorch and Open3D. This paper presents ROS2WASM, a novel integration of RoboStack with WebAssembly, enabling the execution of ROS 2 and its associated software directly within web browsers, without requiring local installations. ROS2WASM significantly enhances the reproducibility and shareability of research, lowers barriers to robotics education, and leverages WebAssembly's robust security framework to protect against malicious code. We detail our methodology for cross-compiling ROS 2 packages into WebAssembly, the development of a specialized middleware for ROS 2 communication within browsers, and the implementation of https://www.ros2wasm.dev, a web platform enabling users to interact with ROS 2 environments. Additionally, we extend support to the Robotics Toolbox for Python and adapt its Swift simulator for browser compatibility. Our work paves the way for unprecedented accessibility in robotics, offering scalable, secure, and reproducible environments that have the potential to transform educational and research paradigms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_09941
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ROS2WASM: Bringing the Robot Operating System to the Web
Fischer, Tobias
Paredes, Isabel
Batchelor, Michael
Beier, Thorsten
Haviland, Jesse
Traversaro, Silvio
Vollprecht, Wolf
Schmitz, Markus
Milford, Michael
Robotics
The Robot Operating System (ROS) has become the de facto standard middleware in robotics, widely adopted across domains ranging from education to industrial applications. The RoboStack distribution, a conda-based packaging system for ROS, has extended ROS's accessibility by facilitating installation across all major operating systems and architectures, integrating seamlessly with scientific tools such as PyTorch and Open3D. This paper presents ROS2WASM, a novel integration of RoboStack with WebAssembly, enabling the execution of ROS 2 and its associated software directly within web browsers, without requiring local installations. ROS2WASM significantly enhances the reproducibility and shareability of research, lowers barriers to robotics education, and leverages WebAssembly's robust security framework to protect against malicious code. We detail our methodology for cross-compiling ROS 2 packages into WebAssembly, the development of a specialized middleware for ROS 2 communication within browsers, and the implementation of https://www.ros2wasm.dev, a web platform enabling users to interact with ROS 2 environments. Additionally, we extend support to the Robotics Toolbox for Python and adapt its Swift simulator for browser compatibility. Our work paves the way for unprecedented accessibility in robotics, offering scalable, secure, and reproducible environments that have the potential to transform educational and research paradigms.
title ROS2WASM: Bringing the Robot Operating System to the Web
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.09941