# ROS News for the Week March 31st, 2025

**URL:** <https://discourse.openrobotics.org/t/ros-news-for-the-week-march-31st-2025/43015>\
**Category:** Community News\
**Tags:** weekly-update\
**Created:** [April 4, 2025, 7:49pm UTC](https://discourse.openrobotics.org/t/ros-news-for-the-week-march-31st-2025/43015 "2025-04-04T19:49:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Katherine\_Scott](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/discourse.openrobotics.org/katherine_scott/32/4434_2.png) [@Katherine\_Scott](https://discourse.openrobotics.org/u/Katherine_Scott)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2025, 7:49pm UTC](https://discourse.openrobotics.org/t/ros-news-for-the-week-march-31st-2025/43015/1 "2025-04-04T19:49:22Z")

</div>

# ROS News for the Week March 31st, 2025
  

 ![OSRF Google Summer of Code](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/ros/original/3X/0/2/02dd9b627fd49b014a3b1a7d3fda197387dc11a1.jpeg)  
[Applications for GSoC 2025, the OSRF’s only paid internship program, are due on](http://discourse.ros.org/t/osrf-google-summer-of-code-2025/42653) **Tuesday, April 8, 2025 6:00 PM**. I checked this morning and there are only ~30 legitimate applications. A few of the “less sexy” projects don’t have any applications. _All of this is to say, if you take the time to apply you have a really good shot at getting accepted!_

  

 ![ROSConDiversity](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/ros/original/3X/4/a/4aa98e7361216495d4fec8d16bfdeb2d5dcf74d6.jpeg)  
[ROSCon 2025 Diversity Scholarship applications are due in two weeks](https://roscon.ros.org/2025/#diversity-scholars), on 2025-04-18T07:00:00Z.

  

 ![Copy of March25GCM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/ros/original/3X/3/9/39705459ba4aae4f22c5ed0bc796db039095779f.jpeg)  
Join us for on 2025-04-30T07:00:00Z for our next Gazebo Community meeting on [RoSE Terrain Generator (RTG): Monocular Depth-Based Synthetic DEM Generation](https://community.gazebosim.org/t/community-meeting-rose-terrain-generator-rtg-monocular-depth-based-synthetic-dem-generation/3681)

  

 ![Screenshot From 2025-04-04 12-29-47](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/ros/original/3X/3/f/3ffe118a6d6d16467182c10a882eeecacff9d54e.png)  
The [Robot Report’s 50 most innovative robotics companies](https://www.therobotreport.com/rbr50-2025/) were released this week. **More than half of them are ROS users, including OSRA members NVIDIA, Clearpath, Roboto, Asensus, and Locus.** 🎉

  

![hand_intro_3](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/ros/original/3X/e/6/e66377d12b279079f2cf879752cf6447934986f4.gif)  
[Check out this super cool open hardware / open software dexterous hand that runs ROS!](https://wengmister.github.io/#dexterous-hand). [Source code and CAD available here.](https://github.com/wengmister/BiDexHand)

  

![GoBlue](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/ros/original/3X/9/3/93e85abe5000a85b71805c2a2b9e028042c57b93.gif)  
Our colleagues over at University of Michigan have released [🌊OceanSim: A GPU-Accelerated Underwater Robot Perception Simulation Framework](https://umfieldrobotics.github.io/OceanSim/). Even better, it has ROS baked right in. [Source code available here](https://github.com/umfieldrobotics/OceanSim).

  

 ![main_teaser](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/ros/original/3X/b/f/bfd392c7d09bedbcc3357618bbd874bc9badab33.jpeg)  
Check out FACTR an open hardware / open software teleop and RL training framework based on ROS. [FACTR Hardware](https://github.com/JasonJZLiu/FACTR_Hardware) - [FACTR Teleop](https://github.com/JasonJZLiu/FACTR_Teleop) - [FACTR Training](https://github.com/RaindragonD/factr/)

  

 ![86e7ac01fc34606483074cf5af9ba191d5362ebc_2_499x500](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/ros/original/3X/8/6/8682812b05bf76c241802dd6fdd1b8e1763c544e.jpeg)  
There’s finally a [low-cost micro-ROS/LiDAR/Motor drivers board thats available commercially?](http://discourse.ros.org/t/low-cost-micro-ros-lidar-motor-drivers-board-available-commercially/42985). THIS IS HUGE! 🎉

# Events

- [2025-04-07 ROS Deliberation Community Group Meeting](http://discourse.ros.org/t/ros-deliberation-community-group-meeting-april-7-2025/42937)
- [2025-04-11 Mistral AI Robotics Hackathon Paris](https://lu.ma/roboticshack)
- [2025-04-28 International Workshop on Robotics Software Engineering](http://discourse.ros.org/t/7th-international-workshop-on-robotics-software-engineering/39901)
- [2025-04-30 Robotics Summit & Expo](https://www.therobotreport.com/robotics-summit-expo-announces-2025-conference-agenda/) wsg @gbiggs.
- [2025-04-30 Gazebo Community meeting: RoSE Terrain Generator (RTG): Monocular Depth-Based Synthetic DEM Generation](https://community.gazebosim.org/t/community-meeting-rose-terrain-generator-rtg-monocular-depth-based-synthetic-dem-generation/3681)
- [2025-04-30 Application Deadline 2nd ACM SIGSOFT Summer School on Software Engineering in Robotics in Delft](http://discourse.ros.org/t/2nd-acm-sigsoft-summer-school-on-software-engineering-in-robotics-in-delft/42923)
- [2025-05-02 CFP Deadline IEEE SMC-IT/SCC Space Robotics Workshop CFP](https://2025.smcit-scc.space/)
- [2025-05-15 ROS-Industrial Consortium Americas 2025 Annual Meeting Detroit](https://rosindustrial.org/events/2025/5/15/ros-industrial-consortium-americas-2025-annual-meeting)
- [2025-05-23 ICRA 2025 Advancing Quantitative and QUAlitative SIMulators for marine applications](https://sites.google.com/view/aq2uasim/home)
- [2025-05-24 ROS MeetUp in Cali, Colombia!](http://discourse.ros.org/t/ros-meetup-in-cali-colombia/42582)
- [2025-05-30 =\> 2025-05-31 2025 Open Hardware Summit in Edinburgh](https://2025.oshwa.org/)
- [2025-09-09 ROSCon JP in Nagoya](https://roscon.jp/)
- [2025-10-27 =\>2025-10-30 ROSCon Singapore](https://roscon.ros.org/2025/)
- [2025-11-17 =\> 2025-11-20 Joint ROSCon Germany and France](http://discourse.ros.org/t/roscon-fr-de-2025/42542)
- [2025-05-11 CFP Deadline for Robotics & AI Track @ CppCon](https://cppcon.org/robotics-track/)

# News

- [OSRF Google Summer of Code 2025 🌞 – Paid Internship](http://discourse.ros.org/t/osrf-google-summer-of-code-2025/42653) – **APPLICATIONS DUE 2025-04-08T07:00:00Z**
- [We’re Creating a Willow Garage Oral History – tell us what you want to hear about](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdkbWOcLFMdOves2HuhYDCY5FtJGSM1tfpkO49ThJZQGPPKA/viewform)
- [Robot Report’s 50 most innovative robotics companies](https://www.therobotreport.com/rbr50-2025/) - Half are ROS users, including OSRA members NVIDIA, Clearpath, Roboto, Asensus, and Locus.
- [New Canadian / Danish Robotics Cluster Alliance 🤖🇨🇦🤝🇩🇰🤖](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rgariepy_hm25-robotics-canadianrobotics-activity-7313558693961179137-b9cQ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAEnhRZ4B2pGn_eBycwGC0SZfwEeMLN3hJ24)
- [Introducing Autoware Foundation 2.0!](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7313625674643095554)
- [Video: SwRI Develops COMOT Mobile Manipulator Robot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woHeaeD28qw)
- [OSRA TGC meeting minutes for February, 2025](http://discourse.ros.org/t/osra-tgc-meeting-minutes-for-february-2025/42941)
- [ROS 2 tutorials upgrade & entrance level complexity](http://discourse.ros.org/t/ros-2-tutorials-upgrade-entrance-level-complexity/42926)
- [Autonomous forest exploration and wildlife monitoring robot.](http://discourse.ros.org/t/autonomous-forest-exploration-and-wildlife-monitoring-robot/42939)
- [Invitation to Collaborate on AsyncAPI Specification for ROS 2](http://discourse.ros.org/t/invitation-to-collaborate-on-asyncapi-specification-for-ros2/42915)
- [U of Alberta research focuses on robotics in medical applications](https://indrorobotics.ca/research-at-u-of-alberta-focuses-on-robotics-for-medical-applications/)
- [A Roboticist’s First Time at the European Robotics Forum](https://www.weeklyrobotics.com/articles/2025_04_04_erf_2025/)
- [Haply Robotics to offer its haptic controller with PickNik’s MoveItPro](https://www.therobotreport.com/haply-robotics-offers-haptic-controller-pickniks-moveitpro/)
- [Hyundai to buy ‘tens of thousands’ of Boston Dynamics robots](https://www.therobotreport.com/hyundai-purchase-tens-of-thousands-boston-dynamics-robots/)
- [Chef Robotics raises $20.6 million to continue building AI robot arms](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/31/chef-robotics-raises-20point6-million-to-continue-building-ai-robot-arms.html)- [Pitch Deck](https://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-deck-ai-robot-startup-chef-used-raise-20-6-2025-4)
- [Agility Robotics reportedly raising $400M for humanoid warehouse robots](https://www.geekwire.com/2025/agility-robotics-reportedly-raising-400m-for-humanoid-warehouse-robots/)
- [What is a Servo Motor and How it Works](https://www.jameco.com/Jameco/workshop/Howitworks/how-servo-motors-work.html)
- [More ROS Train Robots!!!](https://hhla.de/en/media/news/detail-view/successful-project-deployment-of-mobile-robotics-in-rail-operations)
- [Video Friday](https://spectrum.ieee.org/video-friday-rivr-robot-delivery)
- [Nurturing New Contributors: The Art of Crafting Good First Issues on GitHub](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63zMCwCjFz4)
- [Weekly Robotics #306](https://www.weeklyrobotics.com/weekly-robotics-306)

# ROS & Robotics

- Robotec’s new [standard interfaces for interacting with simulators from ROS 2](https://github.com/ros-simulation/simulation_interfaces)
- [🆒 New ROS Dexterous Hand](https://wengmister.github.io/#dexterous-hand) - [source code](https://github.com/wengmister/BiDexHand)
- [🆒 🌊OceanSim: A GPU-Accelerated Underwater Robot Perception Simulation Framework](https://umfieldrobotics.github.io/OceanSim/) - [source code](https://github.com/umfieldrobotics/OceanSim)
- 🆒 FACTR open hardware / software teleop and training – [FACTR Hardware](https://github.com/JasonJZLiu/FACTR_Hardware) - [FACTR Teleop](https://github.com/JasonJZLiu/FACTR_Teleop) - [Training](https://github.com/RaindragonD/factr/)
- [🆒 Vision Model for Drones](https://huggingface.co/StephanST/unidrone)
- [Low-cost micro-ROS/LiDAR/Motor drivers board available commercially](http://discourse.ros.org/t/low-cost-micro-ros-lidar-motor-drivers-board-available-commercially/42985)
- [New ROS 2 package for multi-sensor calibration](http://discourse.ros.org/t/new-ros-2-package-for-multi-sensor-calibration/43003)
- [Input for Aerial Vehicles ROS Support Guide](http://discourse.ros.org/t/input-for-aerial-vehicles-ros-support-guide/42929)
- [Preparing for Noetic Sync 2025-04-08](http://discourse.ros.org/t/preparing-for-noetic-sync-2025-04-08/42940)
- [New packages and patch release for Humble Hawksbill 2025-03-31](http://discourse.ros.org/t/new-packages-and-patch-release-for-humble-hawksbill-2025-03-31/42906)
- [New packages for ROS 2 Rolling Ridley 2025-03-28](http://discourse.ros.org/t/new-packages-for-ros-2-rolling-ridley-2025-03-28/42863)
- [Odometry for a Simulated Mobile Robot in a cool world with ROS & Gazebo](http://discourse.ros.org/t/odometry-for-a-simulated-mobile-robot-in-a-cool-world-with-ros-gazebo/42957)
- [Community interest in a Vector Field Histogram global path planning algorithm](http://discourse.ros.org/t/community-interest-in-a-vector-field-histogram-global-path-planning-algorithm/41286)
- [New Online Course: Building Gazebo Simulations with Blender](http://discourse.ros.org/t/new-online-course-building-gazebo-simulations-with-blender/42919)
- [New LineTurtle mini Robot](https://github.com/robofuntastic/lineturtle)
- [ROS 2 / Gazebo OmniDirectional Robot Simulator](https://github.com/YePeOn7/ros2_omni_robot_sim)
- [New YOLO annotator with some nice automation](https://github.com/stephansturges/Tator/tree/main)
- [Openwalker ROS Robot](https://github.com/TUM-ICS/openwalker)
- [On Learning Robot Racing Policies](https://grzegorzczput.github.io/rl-racing/)
- [A ROS 1 and ROS 2 node that converts PointCloud2 LIDAR data to OccupancyGrid 2D map data based on intensity and / or height](https://github.com/jkk-research/pointcloud_to_grid)
- [Building Autonomous Vehicle in Carla- PID Controller & ROS 2](https://learnopencv.com/pid-controller-ros-2-carla/)
- [Source code for an end-to-end autonomous vehicle stack](https://github.com/soumya997/carla-e2e-av-stack)
- [A precise and methodical process designed to assess the mechanical and sensory capabilities of the UR robot in real-world applications.](https://github.com/KevinEppacher/goldilocks_sensibility_ws)
- [🦀 Workshop on developing ROS 2 applications using the Rust language](https://github.com/roboticswithjulia/ros2_rust_workshop)
- [ROS 2 Laser Segmentation Tools](https://github.com/ajtudela/laser_segmentation)
- [ros2-pkg-create: Powerful ROS 2 Package Generator](https://github.com/ika-rwth-aachen/ros2-pkg-create?tab=readme-ov-file)
- [Autoware Core 1.0!](https://github.com/autowarefoundation/autoware_core/releases/tag/1.0.0)
- [Towards a robotic intrusion prevention system: Combining security and safety in cognitive social robots](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921889025000454?dgcid=author)
- [ROS 2 platform based program designed to control and Monitor ATVs.](https://github.com/Lapland-Robotics/AI.R-Autonomous_Robot)
- [MIT Course: Visual Navigation for Autonomous Vehicles](https://vnav.mit.edu/)
- [MIT-SPARK/spark-fast-lio: FAST-LIO2 on ROS 2 with various functionalities for LIO mapping](https://github.com/MIT-SPARK/spark-fast-lio)
- [Video: How to Utilize LeRobot, Isaac Sim and ROS 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO5wMzw9LeQ)
- [New SLAM-Handbook](https://github.com/SLAM-Handbook-contributors/slam-handbook-public-release)
- [Int-Ball2 Technology Demonstration Platform ROS/Gazebo Simulator](https://github.com/jaxa/int-ball2_simulator)
- [ROS# for .Net Applications](https://github.com/siemens/ros-sharp)
- [OpenArm](https://www.open-arm.org/)
- [MegaRover ROS / Gazebo Simulation](https://github.com/atinfinity/megarover_samples_ros2)
- [New Open Hardware Arm](https://github.com/vidalperezbohoyo/g-arm/tree/main)

# Got a Minute? ⏰

- [We could really use someone’s help backporting this point cloud transformation to Humble.](https://github.com/ros2/geometry2/issues/775)
- [There’s still time to get this update to launch for custom log file names into Kilted.](https://github.com/ros2/launch_ros/issues/380)