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Keynote: The role of cloud and open
source software in the future of robotics
Roger Barga C l o u d R o b o t i c s S u m m i t General Manager AWS Robotics Brian Gerkey CEO, Founder Open Robotics
Trends to track
Role of cloud in
future of robotics
What defines a robot?
A robot is an autonomous machine that is capable of
sensing
its
environment, that performs
computations
to make decisions, and
that performs
actions
in the real world.
Compute
Three distinct types of robots
Mobile robotics
We are at an inflection point.
Expected growth in the use of
mobile robots will increase by
almost tenfold over the next
two to three years.
333%
Mobile robotics
Source: IDTechEx
By 2030
70% of all mobile material
handling equipment will
be autonomous
By 2023
It’s estimated that mobile
autonomous robots will emerge
as the standard for logistic and
fulfillment processes
The pull of economics
Sources: Economist Intelligence Unit; IMB; Institut fur Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung; Int’l Robot Federation; US Social Security Data; McKinsey analysis
220 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 Labor costs Robot prices 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Top reasons for deploying
Q.
Please rank the top 5 reasons for deploying or planning to deploy
commercial service robots in your organization. N=550
Source: Commercial Service Robotics Survey IDC, July 2018
50.4 44.4 40.4 39.3 36.9 33.5 33.1 32.2 31.1 28.2 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
3PLs
eCommerce/Retailers
Other opportunities for mobile robots
Today just ~2%
of mobile robots
are automated
Robot platform
Fork trucks Tuggers
Pallet movers Cross-dock
Pallet conveying
Unit load moves Shipping/receiving
Replenishment
Process
The future of mobile robots in logistics
Takeaways
Economics is a significant driver.
1
Improve worker productivity, offer customers
new services, and increase operational capacity.
2
There’s consumer demand for new experiences.
Trends to track
Role of cloud in
future of robotics
AWS RoboMaker
Simulation
Cloud extensions
72 sensors
Low-end CPU
Cloud extensions
Customer story
Customer story
Need
• Voice interface
• Real-time monitoring • Live video streaming
Challenges
• Little expertise
• Limited local compute power • Limited engineering resources
Solution
• AWS RoboMaker cloud extensions
Amazon
Lex Kinesis Video Amazon
Streams
Amazon
Rekognition CloudWatchAmazon Amazon
Implementation
Robot
Cloud Extensions
Machine learning
Fleet management Diagnostics and logging
Over-the-air updates Sockets server Real-time data AWS RoboMaker ROS AWS Lambda Amazon S3 Amazon CloudWatch Amazon Lex Amazon Polly Amazon Rekognition AWS IoT Greengrass
Customer success
Results
• Built voice interface within hours
• Built live monitoring and alerting within days • Built live video streaming within days
“It was a revelation seeing how easily cloud connectivity could be accomplished with
[AWS] RoboMaker. We immediately realized that we could use [AWS] RoboMaker to take the next release of Lea to a higher level.”
Gabriel Lopes
AWS RoboMaker
simulation
Zero infrastructure to
provision, configure,
or manage
Run multiple
simulations in parallel
Auto-scale based on
simulation complexity
Pay-as-you-go
Customer story
Need
• Test coverage for different floor layouts • Test coverage for different scenarios,
such as robot kidnap
• Improve code release speed • Challenges
Challenges
• Costly and time consuming to test • Limited test cases and coverage • Late bug discovery
Solution
• Large-scale and automated testing using AWS RoboMaker simulation
Customer success
Results
• 40 automated tests on each code commit
• 500 automated tests for each release candidate • Much faster testing and release cycle
AWS
Reinforcement
Learning for
Successful
simulation to
real transfer
Role of the cloud in the future of robotics
Intelligent cloud services can enhance local processing
on the robot and can improve performance over time.
1
Simulation can be used to test application correctness,
and ensure performance across a range of conditions.
2
Simulation, combined with imitation and reinforcement
learning, can be used to program robot actuation.
Robot software is hard
software
environment
sensors actuators
ROS
Robotics SDK
tools capabilities ecosystem plumbing
Technical Steering Committee
ROS 2
Goals
• Quality of design and
implementation
• Validation, verification,
and certification
• System reliability
• Flexibility in communication • Real-time control and
deterministic execution
• Support for small
Latest release
Foxy Fitzroy—June 2020 EOL—May 2023
Focus for 2020 Q3-Q4:
Product readiness
Make ROS 2 more suitable for use
in production scenarios
Improve the out-of-box experience
for common use cases
Improve documentation
Address disparities between ROS 1 and ROS 2
Gazebo
Simulation as the best possible substitute for physical robots
GUI Sensors
Interfaces Cloud Physics
Ignition
Simulation libraries for reuse in other applications
ign-gui ign-sensors
ign-rendering ign-transportign-msgs ign-fuel ign-physics
Ignition/Gazebo status & roadmap
Latest release
Citadel—December 2020 EOL—December 2024
