Open-source innovations for autonomous work machines
The AIT Center for Vision, Automation & Control (VAC) will be represented with three talks in the main program of ROSCon 2025, taking place from October 27–29 in Singapore. ROSCon is the world’s largest developer conference dedicated to the open-source ecosystem ROS, the de facto standard framework for robotics software. “We use ROS 2 and other open-source software every day and see it as our responsibility to give back results from industrial and research projects to the community. That’s why we are especially excited to contribute three talks at ROSCon this year,” says Marco Wallner, Scientist at VAC. “Our contributions present open-source solutions designed to make working with robots more intuitive, development processes simpler, and complex systems more reliable.”
“It as our responsibility to give back results from industrial and research projects to the community.”
Marco Wallner, Scientist at VAC
Presentation: Making Robot Perception Visible
Robots increasingly work side by side with humans in shared environments. Even when formal safety is ensured, the perceived sense of safety can suffer if people don’t know what the robot actually perceives – reducing trust and acceptance.
In the FFG project CARIPU, a consortium led by AIT, develops building blocks that address exactly this challenge. One of them will be presented in this talk: a lightweight, ROS 2-based open-source feedback system using LED strips that intuitively shows in real time which people, objects, or areas the robot detects – creating a kind of “eye contact” between human and machine.
The goal is an intuitive, training-free solution that makes human-robot collaboration in shared spaces noticeably more comfortable and natural.
Project: FFG-Projekt CARIPU (https://projekte.ffg.at/projekt/4790396), led by AIT, Marco Wallner.
Presentation titel: „Seeing Is Believing: Enhancing Robot Acceptance with Perception-Aware LED Feedback“, 28.10.2025, 11:30 SGT (UTC+8)
Contact: Matthias Schörghuber, VAC
GitHub: https://github.com/AIT-Assistive-Autonomous-Systems/led_strip_hmi_demo_workspace
Presentation: Tools for efficient ROS 2 data preparation and management
With ros2bag_tools, working with these datasets becomes much easier. Instead of writing custom scripts or complex configurations, users can rely on straightforward command-line operations – such as cut (create excerpts), extract (filter topics), sync (time alignment), plot (basic visualization), or export (convert to common formats).
Datasets can thus be trimmed, synchronized, visualized, and shared within seconds – simple, intuitive, and reproducible. The tool supports the entire workflow, from debugging and dataset preparation to continuous integration (CI) processes.
Presentation titel: „Help Me with the Bags: Quick & Easy ROS 2 Data Handling“, 28.10.2025, 15:50 SGT (UTC+8)
Contact: Markus Hofstätter, VAC
GitHub: https://github.com/AIT-Assistive-Autonomous-Systems/ros2bag_tools
Presentation: Efficient and Reliable Image Data Transmission
More cameras, higher resolution, higher frame rates – modern robotics produces enormous amounts of data. This talk showcases two open-source tools for ROS 2 designed to handle these challenges:
skinny_vision enables efficient image transport within and across processes – with automatic compression and zero-copy memory sharing.
In addition, AIT will present enhancements to the gst-bridge, which preserve original timestamps and enable precise synchronization even across unreliable networks.
Together, these components reduce bandwidth and memory usage while improving reliability and scalability of vision-based systems.
For practical applications, this means smooth multi-camera pipelines with lower latency, robust remote streaming, and accurate temporal fusion – applicable from factory automation and logistics to agricultural robotics.
Presentation titel: „Smarter Vision Pipelines for ROS 2: Compress, Transport, and Sync at Scale“, 28.10.2025, 15:00 SGT (UTC+8)
Contact: Guilherme Rodrigues, VAC
GitHub: https://github.com/AIT-Assistive-Autonomous-Systems/roscon2025_smarter_vision_pipelines
AIT as Member of OSRA to strengthen the development of autonomous machines
The AIT is also a proud member of the Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA) – a global network of leading companies and institutions in the field of robotics. Under the umbrella of the OSRA, the Robot Operating System (ROS) — the open software platform that has become the international standard for robotic systems — is maintained. Through this membership, AIT strengthens its key position in the international development of autonomous and robotic systems.
Christoph Fröhlich, an expert in autonomous working machines at VAC, represents the AIT within the OSRA and serves as a maintainer of the ros2_control project, contributing significantly to the ongoing advancement of one of the most important open-source platforms in robotics.
All talks will be streamed live and will be available online afterwards at roscon.ros.org/2025.
Links:
ROSCon: roscon.ros.org/2025/
OSRA: osralliance.org/membership/
Autonome Arbeitsmaschinen: www.ait.ac.at/loesungen/autonome-arbeitsmaschinen
Large-Scale Robotics Lab: www.ait.ac.at/labs/large-scale-robotics-lab