META-ROS: EMPOWERING ROBOTICS WITH AN ADVANCED META OPERATING SYSTEM

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

PES University, RR Campus, Bengaluru - 560085
The Project

1 3 The Meta-ROS middleware is built as a modular Tools and Frameworks:

Problem Statement Methodology library in Python, adhering to object-oriented

programming principles to ensure reusability
• Programming Languages: Python,
Rust, C, C++.
and maintainability. The primary components of
The fast-evolving robotics industry demands a unified, developer- the Meta-ROS library include: • Libraries: Eclipse Zenoh, ZeroMQ
friendly meta operating system to streamline hardware integration (pyzmq), wax
and simplify application creation. Current solutions face challenges
like hardware mismatches, complex architectures, and limited
1 MessageBroker: Manages all message
publishing and subscription interactions • Development Tools: Ruff, Git, PyPI,
GitHub Actions.
interoperability across platforms.
2 Publisher: Sends messages to a specified
topic
Our solution:
• A lightweight middleware compatible with any OS or
processor, optimized for IoT. 3 2 Subscriber: Receives messages from a
specified topic
High Level View of our system
• Robust publisher-subscriber communication for seamless
device interaction. Note: Our middleware operates on top of Timer, Topic, Rate, and Datalogger Classes:
the OS, with basic I/O, scheduling, and These supporting classes provide essential
• Comprehensive driver support for peripherals like cameras, other system functions managed by the Our custom Pub/Sub communication model using MQs and
underlying OS. functionality for message scheduling, timing, Zenoh with brokers in the middle
LIDARs, and more. and diagnostics.
Empowering developers to innovate and unlock the full potential of
The Meta-ROS communication model is based on a
robotics! Given the unpredictable nature of • Implemented retry mechanisms for message delivery
to ensure reliable communication. message-passing architecture that supports both publish-
robotic environments, our
middleware must maintain high • Tested under various failure scenarios (e.g., network
subscribe and request-reply patterns. This model is designed

2 Background & Features

reliability and fault tolerance. outages, unexpected node shutdowns) to observe
2
recovery behavior.
4 5
to facilitate data exchange between independent
components while minimizing dependencies, thus ensuring

4 Results
• Evaluated error handling and failover processes to
minimize downtime and ensure system robustness.
flexibility and reducing bottlenecks.

Current Solutions

ROS 2 Custom-Built Operating Because of its lightweight,

high-performance messaging
5 Conclusion & Future Work
Requires Overwhelming Setup System capabilities and support for Meta-ROS marks a significant milestone in robotics development with the completion of its initial
Only works on Linux Very Expensive aspects like dependability and version, rigorously tested and now available on PyPI for global use. Offering improved
discovery, Zenoh stands out communication rates, enhanced bandwidth, and a more user-friendly experience compared to
Meta-ROS’s Innovation as the finest communication ROS 2, Meta-ROS stands as a groundbreaking innovation. Additionally, we have successfully filed
alternative overall.
for a US patent, solidifying its originality and impact.
• Seamlessly integrates with existing ROS 2 codebases—
Future work focuses on integrating Meta-ROS with cloud platforms and containerization
simply update the imports to get started. Comparison of ROS DDS, Zenoh, and technologies like Docker and Kubernetes to enhance scalability. By making the project open-source
Other Communication Frameworks
• Utilizes Zenoh as the pub/sub communication protocol, on GitHub, we invite contributions from the global developer community to drive further
delivering unmatched performance and bandwidth efficiency. advancements in robotics
Meta-ROS demonstrates remarkable advancements over ROS 2, achieving up to 30% higher

6
• Supports advanced message types like audio and throughput and 25% faster message transfer rates, enabling more efficient communication
video/image messages, alongside all the traditional message
types available in ROS 2.
for robotics applications. Designed with developers in mind, it simplifies the setup process
with a one-line installation command and offers full cross-platform support, including Linux,
References
Windows, and macOS. This ease of use, combined with its performance improvements,
• Employs ZeroMQ for message buffering, ensuring safe and • Steve Macenski, Tully Foote, Brian Gerkey, Chris Lalancette and William Woodall, “Robot
makes Meta-ROS a groundbreaking tool for modern robotics development.
reliable communication. Operating System 2: Design, Architecture, and Uses In The Wild”, arXiv:2211.07752 [cs.RO],
Authors: Nov. 2022.
• Extremely easy to set up and get started with, requiring • Yu Liu, Aitor Hernandez Herranz and Roberto C. Sundin, “RoboKube: Establishing a New
minimal configuration. Foundation for the Cloud Native Evolution in Robotics”, arXiv:2403.04440 [cs.RO], Mar. 2024.
• Lukas Johannes Dust, Emil Persson et al. “Quantitative analysis of communication handling
• Fully, supports all major operating systems including
for centralized multi-agent robot systems using ROS2”, 2022 IEEE 20th International
Linux, Windows, and macOS.
Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN), Perth, Australia.
• Designed to be highly developer-friendly, with an intuitive Anshul Anoosh Neha Dhruva Anantharaman Dr. Shylaja • S. Mobaiyen, “Systematic Gap Analysis of Robot Operating System (ROS 2) in Real-time
interface and easy integration. Ranjan Damodar Chougule S Nayak P.N S.S. Systems”, Dissertation, 2022.