
Stage: Pre-launch
Number of employees: 1-5
Short URL: vator.co/openrover
Referred by: 2017 Robot Launch
OpenRover is a platform for controlling autonomous robots.
Just as Comma.ai's OpenPilot is a system for controlling a vehicle which aims to be a general platform for road driving, OpenRover's goal is to be a platform that runs on room-scale mobile robots and integrates processing and management of sensors such as cameras and low-end lidar.
Similar in spirit to ROS, but with a more specific target, OpenRover goes so far as to recommend a set of hardware that it works with, in order to make getting started with the system easier and pre-configured.
OpenRover is in development, and is currently used to race Self Racing Cars in Melbourne https://medium.com/australian-robotics-society/build-your-own-self-racing-car-4204b30dc4d0 , run SLAM on a $150 lidar system https://medium.com/australian-robotics-society/odroid-power-295984211c6a , and accelerate the development of OpenCV based computer vision lane finding techniques. https://medium.com/australian-robotics-society/steering-with-vision-b4c6d02610d0
Longer term goals with it involve working towards building an integrated delivery robotic system, and developing human-scale interaction:
https://medium.com/australian-robotics-society/creating-a-thing-that-looks-at-you-1e8ec39a7b47
https://medium.com/australian-robotics-society/pan-and-tilt-camera-1a9f05589239