Robot operating system: A modular software framework for automated driving

Abstract

Automated vehicles are complex systems with a high degree of interdependencies between its components. This complexity sets increasing demands for the underlying software framework. This paper firstly analyzes the requirements for software frameworks. Afterwards an overview on existing software frameworks, that have been used for automated driving projects, is provided with an in-depth introduction into an emerging open-source software framework, the Robot Operating System (ROS). After discussing the main features, advantages and disadvantages of ROS, the communication overhead of ROS is analyzed quantitatively in various configurations showing its applicability for systems with a high data load.