The Journey of building ROSIndustrial initiatives in Asia Pacific
ROS-Industrial Consortium
Asia Pacific
Present by: Nicholas Yeo
14th Sep 20181

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Who we are
ROS-Industrial Consortium
Today challenges
What we are trying to achieve2Who are we?
Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology
Centre (ARTC) under Agency for Science,
Technology and Research (A*STAR)• Focused in Advanced Manufacturing andRemanufacturing technologies• Bridge the gap between Research andIndustry• Private Public Partnership Consortium with amembership ecosystem•

Smart Manufacturing

Advanced RemanufacturingIntelligent Product Verification

Test-bedding of Industrie
4.0 Technologies••

Additive Manufacturing
Industrialisation

Advanced Robotic Applications•

Develop niche robotic
application for
manufacturing

Regenerative RepairProcesses•

Focus metal printing for
production use

Metrology, Inspection,
condition monitoring
technologies

Data-Driven Surface Enhancement•Fatigue life improvement

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ROS-Industrial Consortium
ROS-Industrial is an open-source project that extends the advanced capabilities of ROS software tomanufacturing.
Asia Pacific’s Objective:•Increase global competitiveness of the robotics industry through ROS development andadoption in Asia Pacific•
Develop ROS-Industrial talent pool through training, summer schools and workshops•
Address specific features for industry applications
Fraunhofer IPA

South West
Research Institute

ARTC
Singapore’s
geographical location
suited to support APThis runs separately from ARTC’s consortium. Projects run by ROS-I APAC Consortium will
be managed by ROS-I Consortium structure and guidelines in the ROS-I APAC membershipagreement.

ROS-Industrial Consortium Members > 60

Source: http://rosindustrial.org/ (dated Jul 2018)7

AP Members since Oct 2017

And growing…..

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Industry adoption of ROSBMWToyota (TRI)

Agriculture

Logistic

Manufacturing

Automotive

Robonaut

Military

Disaster Mgt

AerospaceSpaceConstruction

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Source: SwRI ROS-Industrial BrochureToday Challenges thru PEST Analysis
Political Factors

Economic Factors

Social Factors

TechnologicalFactors

PEST• Government
Support oncollaboration &adoption (Private /Public)• Legislation• Business ROI• Economy of Scale• Fragmented
supply chain• IP & Legal
Challenges• R&D Funding
Limitation in
private entities• Scarcity of talentpool• Retraining ofworkforce• Awareness ofopen source• Less successfulcases of roboticsolutions adopted
in Asia• Technologymaturity (eg:reliableperformance,cybersecurity,supportinghardware)• Quality of swcodes• Standardization(eg: HRC, safety,interoperability)• Regulatory

9Key challenges with industry adoption• In robotics, the success depends on the entire system; notindividual performance of modules– Robot solutions are often unique; existing complexity and issues makeit difficult for companies to learn and figure it out• In industry environment, companies want guarantee inperformance (eg: Security, real-time) and certified to safetystandards (eg: ISO/TS 15066)• Skeptical on open source codes due to business risks andintellectual property liability

We need to win the trust of industry
10Engaging the ROS-Industrial Ecosystem

IHLs

MNCs
LLE
SME

Hobby

PHD
MSc

ROS-Industrial AP Strategy• Developers Training (Basic/ Advance Class)• Summer Schools• Future: Application level• Roadmapping• Focus Technical Projects• Direct Projects

Focus on talent pooldevelopment

Institutesof higher
Learning

End Users

Invest R&D in key
industry problem
statements

Collaborate &improve quality ofROS compliance tools& drivers

TechnologyProviders

SolutionProviders

Develop solution
providers to address
market needs• Code maintenances &updates• Conduct Hackathons• Same as above

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Holistic view of our journey
ROS-I OfficeCompleted
Inception ofROS-I AP

Deepentechnologies

Focus on value
creation withindustry partners

JanJunStability

Q2

Q3
Mar2018

2017

Oct
1st Membership
Signed2019

Dec
Build core
team

2020

Q4

Oct
Scale upcompetency

2021…

Strengthen
Ecosystem

PhasesStart-up

Ramp up

ExpandStableTalent Development
ROS Developer Training

Summer School• Conduct quarterly (Basic / Advancedpackages)• 6 training since Jun 2017• > 60 participants trained• Conduct annually with a local school• Mar 2018 collaborated with Singapore
Polytechnic• Focus on student awareness• ~ 20 students

14Events – Promote ROS awarenessInternational Conference on Robotics
and Automation (ICRA) 2018– Brisbane
Australia

Singapore International
Robotic Event (SIRE) 201715

Annual Workshop – Jun 2018
27th – 28th June 2018
2 Days of presentations (International, Regional and Local)
Demonstrations and Exhibition

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ROS-INDUSTRIAL PROJECTSEXAMPLES

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Scan-N-PlanTM in Singapore

ROS-I added capabilityfor:• Universal Robotics• Fanuc18

PackML: Scope & Deliverables•

Collaborators: 3M, ARTC, SwRI, PlusOne Robotics•Problem Statement: Software development of using PackML state machine tocommunicate between PLC and ROS.

•Delivered:– Tested with a remote PLC using a standard PackML implementation using OPCUA to connect to the PLC– Developed an open-source C++ library, python (SMACH) to implement thePackML state machine abstraction for use in ROS-I.
– Integrate RVIZ plugin for PackML• PACKML State Machine• Provide options for mode selection• Show accumulative timer per statePackML (Packing Machine Language) state machine commonly used by PLCs in packaging
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Robotic Vision: Object recognition and picking task

In-house

Problem Statement
Industrial robotic tasks are often constrained by specific hardware requirements.
Integration through ‘traditional control system’ is challenging and highly complex

ROS drivers power the hardware•

Industrial conveyor, UR robot,
Ensenso stereovision camera

ROS libraries process the data••

Point Cloud library performs
object recognition andlocalisation
Robot motion planning handledby Moveit.

ROS middleware••
ROS allows for real timevisualization of sensor data

Provides hardware agnostic
communication to systemcomponents
Significant reduction incomplexity when changing
hardware setup.

Mixed Reality Guided Robot Manipulation

In-house

Problem/Current Situation:• Human Robot Collaboration required improved
safety visualisation• Scalability of robotic solution is hamper by theneed of skilled engineers for programming

Approach: Simplified Robot Programming(SRP) – Phase 1
 Easy and interactive UI in Microsoft HoloLens
 Design translation tool to handle communication
with ROS interface

Challenges• Require higher accuracy to meet application
needs• Need higher processing power for more complex
application

Future Work: Future: build application specific libraries (picking, polishing, assembly etc)

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MTConnect + ROS-I
ROSIN, a project funded by the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme

Demonstrate the ability to implement ROSIndustrial to program a robot and use
MTConnect protocol for communications
between the robot and a CNC machine tool
Collaboration between South West ResearchInstitue with MTConnect, AMT, Hurco,
Hexagon Metrology, and Universal Robots

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Timeline of Events
2018
JanFebMarAprMayJuneROS-I Summer
School (Singapore)– Singapore Poly
12-16 Mar

ROS-I
Training(Singapore)
29 Jan – 2Feb

July

Aug

ROS-I APWorkshop(Singapore)
27 – 28 Jun

ROS-I
Developer
Training(Singapore)
27 – 31 Aug

AnnualMeeting
Hackathon

World ROS-I
Day(Hackaton)
10 – 11 July

EventsNov

Dec

ROS-I Developer
Training (Singapore)
Dec TBC

SIRE 20181 – 2 Nov

World
MoveIt! Day
26 OctCurrent
Training /Workshop

Oct

ROSCON 2018
/ IROS 29-30
Sept

ICRA 2018
29 May – 3
Jun
RIC-Americas
AnnualMeeting
7-8 Mar

Sept

ROS-I
Conference
11-13 DecROS-Industrial APAC TeamOur aim is to drive consistency over time
Create Values and Trust24

RIDING OPPORTUNITIES IN EXPONENTIAL CHANGE
1 – 2 November 2018
Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

Themed ‘Riding Opportunities in Exponential Change’, the Singapore International Robo Expo (SIRE) aims to be a platform thatcreates opportunities for people to meet, connect and convert.

From R&D to Commercialisation• A feature showcase of 07 cutting-edge robotic solutions by Dr. Mohan Rajesh Elara• Mantis, hTetro, sTetro and more!

Multi-Agency Panel Discussion• First and only session featuring various sectors of the Singapore public service (i.e. Maritime and Port Authority ofSingapore, Building & Construction Authority) convening on their requirements for robotics solutions

Startup Marketplace

Social HubSIRE Conference

Live Demo Zone

Expert Huddle Session

For any queries on event participation, please contact Ms Chloe Pung, Project Manager at chloepung@experiaevents.com

Nicholas Yeo
Technical Director
Smart Manufacturing and Advanced Robotic
Applications Division, ARTCROS-I AP Consortium Co-Founder

ROS-I AP Consortium
3 Cleantech Loop
#01-01 CleanTech Two
Singapore 637143
Email: nicholas-yeo@artc.a-star.edu.sg
www.rosindustrial.org

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