Run to the Source: The Effective Reproducibility of Robotics Code Repositories

In recent years the robotics community has actively embraced the open paradigm, and research articles are commonly enriched with the inclusion of a source code repository of software. However, the reproducibility of such code is not straightforward, and it may become increasingly difficult with the evolution of software. There is a need for providing not only the source code but also an executable version with all of the necessary library dependencies. A solution based on software containers is presented in this article, with some unique advantages. First, the executable package is automatically generated from the last version of the source code; second, it is archived in the same cloud service that hosts the code repository; third, it integrates seamlessly with the development workflow of the research code; finally, it does not consume any local computing resources from the researcher. The executable code can then be downloaded and run by other users, with the only requirement being installing a specific software for running containers. This article presents the complete workflow, which is then applied to some illustrative examples of source code repositories of articles published at robotics conferences.