ROS-health: An open-source framework for neurorobotics

Abstract

This paper aims at providing a preliminary description of ROS-Health, a novel framework for neurorobotics based on the middleware Robot Operating System (ROS). The increased interest in the neurorobotics field and the proliferation of several (neuro)physiological-based applications to control robotics devices made clear the importance to establish a standardized research platform in order to facilitate the distribution of the software, the replication of experimental results and the creation of an unified community to share and manage the code in the years. For this reason, we propose a common platform developed in the ROS ecosystem that takes advantage of its tools and capabilities. Furthermore, we describe the design guidelines that we are following in the preliminary definition of ROS-Health architecture. Finally, we present two illustrative use cases that highlight the advantages and benefits of the adoption of ROS-Health.