What a blast! The second edition of the Robotics and Simulation devroom at this year’s FOSDEM was an absolute success. Great talks, smooth organization and a true sense of community. The interest was tangible, especially outside the room in the long queues, which on the upside allowed meeting some soulmates.

Three talks caught my particular interest - though, honestly, it’s damn hard to pick just three from 23.

Talk #1: Open-Source Robotics in Practice: Lessons from Upkie Wheeled Bipeds

I’ve a soft spot for hardware (I studied mechanical engineering, after all), and Stéphane Caron’s Upkie wheeled biped definitely touched it. Both hardware and software are excellent - and that’s no mean feat given the complexity of a self-balancing robot. Particularly nice is that this is not a one-off project - his initial Upkie spawned a whole family, all awesomely unique. Be sure to check out his clear notes on the innards of these creatures, as well as the development story.

There's no competition for the best talk, but if there was, a hardware demo like this one would definitely receive bonus points.

Talk #2: The Technical Stacks Behind Botronics’ iXi Autonomous Golf Trolley

There’s robotics, and there’s actually getting your robot out of the door. Which is also robotics, plus all the usual challenges of a modern software-defined product. Botronics did exactly that with their iXi autonomous golf trolley. The best part? They share their whole tech stack, which somehow encompasses ROS 2, Gazebo, Nav2, BalenaOS, Docker, Telegraf, Grafana, Rviz2, React and Yocto, as well as a few more. Apart from showing that Botronics is an awesome company, it proves that open source robotics and the infrastructure around it is becoming mature and ready for mainstream adoption.

Botronics' iXi tech stack is quite the patchwork! (screenshot from their presentation)

Talk #3: 🦄

Of the 8437 conference-goers, a single one wore a suit. You’ll never guess who…

Looking forward to seeing you all at next year’s FOSDEM. And, also, at the first ROSCon Belgium, scheduled for November 25-26th!