NASA Frees Their Robotics Software

kremvax writes "It's a field day for robotics hackers everywhere, as NASA releases the first installment of their CLARAty reusable robotic software framework to the public. According to the JPL press release, these modules contain everything from math infrastructure to device drivers for common motors and cameras, and computer vision, image, and 3D processing."

Comments

No, the parent was right.

[gr8_phk]

If you read the license, you'll notice that you are not allowed to use the code for commercial purposes without paying a royalty and getting a different license (this one doesn't allow commercial use). Because of this, it does not qualify as Open Source (OSI definition) or Free (FSF definition) unless you're using another definition for one of these common licensing terms. For once we don't need to debate the merits of one or the other, because this license is neither.

Nope, you are wrong:

[geekoid]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

"The term is most commonly applied to the source code of software that is made available to the general public with relaxed or non-existent intellectual property restrictions."

This has relaxed IP restriction. It can be used by any one for non commercial use.

OS and FS are often combined on slashdot, mostly because linux is both.

this library may not be 'free'

[qw0ntum]

But there does exist another large robotics library that is completely free called Player. The project even has two complete simulators, Stage (for 2D simulation of many robots) and Gazebo (for 3D simulation of a smaller number of robots). Great project for any aspiring roboticists out there.