Robots/Parts/Software

ROS 2

A free, widely used set of software for building robots. It is not a single program but a common way for the pieces of a robot's software to talk to each other, with thousands of ready-made pieces to build on.

2 of 5
robots in the database: Open Robotics
made by: Software
brain layer: Free
listed price

Key numbers

Looked after by: Open Robotics
Licence: open source, mostly Apache 2.0

Source: ROS, official site (ros.org)

Price guide

Listed price

Free

Free and open.

Where to buy

Source: ROS, official site (ros.org)

Strengths and trade-offs

Our analysis

Strengths

The common language of robot software, so engineers already know it.

A huge library of ready-made pieces for mapping, navigation and more.

Not owned by any robot or chip maker.

Trade-offs

Has a steep learning curve.

Adds overhead that the most time-critical control avoids.

Quality of the ready-made pieces varies.

Why robot makers choose it

Our read

A robot that speaks ROS 2 plugs into software its buyers have already written. For a maker selling to researchers, supporting it is close to a requirement.

This is our reasoning from the public facts. No maker has confirmed it.

Robots using it

This list covers only the robots researched so far. A robot missing here may still use this part.

Numbers and listed prices on this page come from the sources shown. Anything marked as our analysis, our read or our estimate is our own view and has not been confirmed by any company. Last checked 12 Oct 2026. How we verify