Expanding the Impact of the EEROS Open Source Robotics Framework An Interactive Qualifying Project submitted to the Faculty of WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science by Nicholas Brown Nicholas Hassan Nathan Hughes Ryan Lang Date: 1 May 2015 Report Submitted to: Professor Einar Nielsen NTB Buchs Professor Scott Jiusto Professor Ruth Smith Worcester Polytechnic Institute This report represents work of WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its web site without editorial or peer review. For more information about the projects program at WPI, see http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Projects. Abstract This report, prepared for the developers of the EEROS Real Time Robotics Software Framework, explored options to expand the impact that EEROS would have on the open source robotics community. This open source framework was examined to discover how a healthy development community might grow in a new project. Through increasing EEROS’s presence, analyzing its community, exploring sustainable funding options, organizing and streamlining development and identifying new partners, we gained an understanding of the birth of an open source project. ii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Figures .............................................................................................................................. v Table of Tables ............................................................................................................................... v Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Background ................................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Free Software, the Open Source Movement and Open Source Communities ...................... 3 2.1.1 What Is the Open Source Movement? ........................................................................... 3 2.1.2 History of the Open Source Movement ......................................................................... 4 2.1.3 Ideologies of the Open Source Movement..................................................................... 5 2.1.4 Why the Open Source Movement Is Successful ............................................................ 6 2.1.5 Why People Contribute to the Open Source Movement ................................................ 7 2.1.6 Security Concerns and Quality Control of Open Source Software................................ 7 2.2 Creating and Managing Open Source Software.................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Tools and Community Involvement .............................................................................. 8 2.2.2 Licenses........................................................................................................................ 10 2.2.3 Ethics of Licenses ........................................................................................................ 10 2.2.4 Examples of Licenses .................................................................................................. 11 2.3 What makes an Open Source Software Project Successful? .............................................. 11 2.3.1 Case Study: Red Hat .................................................................................................... 11 2.3.2 Other Open Source Business Models .......................................................................... 13 2.3.3 Crowdfunding and Open Source Software .................................................................. 15 2.4 The Robotics Community ................................................................................................... 15 2.4.1 The History of the Robot ............................................................................................. 16 2.4.2 Social Aspects of the Robotics Community ................................................................ 17 2.4.3 Differences Between Education and Industry.............................................................. 17 2.5 Open Source Robotics Frameworks.................................................................................... 18 2.5.1 ROS .............................................................................................................................. 19 2.5.2 ROS-Industrial, Urbi, and The Player Project ............................................................. 20 2.5.3 The Orocos Project ...................................................................................................... 21 2.6 EEROS ................................................................................................................................ 22 2.6.1 Introduction to EEROS ................................................................................................ 22 2.6.2 Problems EEROS Attempts to Solve ........................................................................... 23 2.6.3 Current State of Development ..................................................................................... 24 2.7 Building a Community for EEROS .................................................................................... 25 2.7.1 EEROS and the Robotics Industry ............................................................................... 25 2.7.2 Potential Funding Options in Industry ......................................................................... 26 2.7.3 EEROS and the World of Educational Robotics ......................................................... 27 2.7.4 Potential Funding Options in Education ...................................................................... 27 Chapter 3: Methodology ............................................................................................................... 30 3.1 Increasing EEROS Presence in the Robotics Community .................................................. 31 3.1.1 EEROS Website ........................................................................................................... 31 3.1.2 EEROS Wiki ................................................................................................................ 32 3.1.3 Social Media ................................................................................................................ 32 iii 3.1.4 Other Materials ............................................................................................................ 32 3.2 Providing access to Sustainable Funding ............................................................................ 33 3.3 Organizing and Streamlining EEROS Development .......................................................... 34 3.4 Maintaining a Healthy Open Source Community ............................................................... 35 3.5 Identifying New Partners .................................................................................................... 36 Chapter 4: Results and Findings ................................................................................................... 38 4.1 Presence .............................................................................................................................. 38 4.1.1 EEROS Website ........................................................................................................... 38 4.1.2 EEROS Wiki ................................................................................................................ 40 4.1.3 Social Media ................................................................................................................ 41 4.1.4 Wikipedia Page ............................................................................................................ 41 4.1.5 Informational Brochure ................................................................................................ 42 4.2 Funding Proposal ................................................................................................................ 42 4.3 Organizing and Streamlining EEROS Development .......................................................... 43 4.4 Maintaining a Healthy Open Source Community ............................................................... 44 4.5 Identifying New Partners .................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 5: Recommendations and Conclusions ........................................................................... 47 5.1 EEROS Presence ................................................................................................................. 47 5.2 Sustainable Funding ............................................................................................................ 48 5.3 Streamlined Development ................................................................................................... 48 5.4 Healthy Community ............................................................................................................ 49 5.5 New Partners ....................................................................................................................... 50 5.6 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................