The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a software framework (software development kit and middleware) that aims to simplify the development and distribution of robotics software and control systems. More generally, ROS
provides services designed for a heterogeneous computer cluster such as hardware abstraction, low-level device control, implementation of commonly used functionality, message-passing between processes, and package management.
Among other functionality, ROS provides the "plumbing" for linking diverse software and hardware components. At its core, it is a form of message-oriented middleware (MOM), which
is software or hardware infrastructure supporting sending and receiving messages between distributed systems. MOM allows application modules to be distributed over heterogeneous platforms and reduces the complexity of developing applications that span multiple operating systems and network protocols.
In addition to the advantages of a MOM architecture, the ROS2 ecosystem also provides tools, capabilities, and support that simplifies the process of developing solutions involving distributed sensor and robotics systems. These capabilities help developers to avoid "reinventing the wheel".
This package provides an interface between ROS and the Force Dimension SDK, so that applications involving Force Dimension haptic devices can leverage the many advantages of ROS. It is our hope that this will accelerate the process of developing haptics applications.