# ros2/ros2

The Robot Operating System, is a meta operating system for robots.

Repository: https://github.com/ros2/ros2
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/ros2
Homepage: https://docs.ros.org
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-08-26T15:39:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 98/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 96, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4208, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 26, "gap_med": 23.0, "n_releases_24m": 17}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5945, forks 946 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:32.673639+00:00)

## What it is
ROS 2 (Robot Operating System) is a meta operating system consisting of software libraries and tools for building robot applications, from hardware drivers to state-of-the-art algorithms and developer tools. It is organized into regular distributions (e.g., Lyrical Luth, Jazzy Jalisco) with tiered platform support across Ubuntu, Windows, macOS, RHEL, and embedded systems.

## Use cases
- build robot applications with an open source middleware framework
- communicate between robot nodes using DDS-based pub/sub messaging
- develop autonomous robot software in C++ or Python
- simulate and prototype robotics systems with Gazebo integration
- deploy robot software on embedded and Yocto-based hardware
- learn robotics with beginner tutorials and CLI tools

## When to choose
- you are building a robot or robotics research project and need drivers, algorithms, and tooling
- you need a mature, community-supported middleware with multi-platform support and long-term releases
- you want interoperability with a large ecosystem of robotics packages like MoveIt, Nav2, and Gazebo

## When to avoid
- you need a simple single-process robotics library without a distributed middleware layer
- your project targets platforms outside the supported tiers and you cannot build from source
- you are maintaining a legacy ROS 1 codebase, which uses the separate ROS 1 wiki and tooling

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: stable
- function: middleware, sdk, developer-tools, cli, simulation
- domain: robotics, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: windows, cpp, python, embedded
- tags: ros2, robot-operating-system, dds, middleware, robotics-framework, meta-operating-system, open-source, automation, linux, macos, docker

## Member repositories
- ros2/ros2 (main) score 98

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:32.673639+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:50:44.732823+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ros2/ros2 (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:32.673639+00:00, sha 08644fcf8bc0)
  - homepage: https://docs.ros.org (fetched 2026-08-29T08:47:00.422520+00:00, sha fb13f08b5f44)
  - site_page: https://docs.ros.org/en/kilted (fetched 2026-08-29T08:47:00.435612+00:00, sha 5b185fdc9f51)
  - site_page: https://docs.ros.org/en/humble (fetched 2026-08-29T08:47:00.437524+00:00, sha b537f29f7430)
  - site_page: https://docs.ros.org/en/rolling (fetched 2026-08-29T08:47:00.439487+00:00, sha e7d0dcaca428)
  - site_page: https://docs.ros.org/en/lyrical/Releases/lyrical/supported-platforms.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:47:00.441161+00:00, sha 48edff5503d9)
  - site_page: https://docs.ros.org/en/lyrical/Releases/Release-Kilted-Kaiju.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:47:00.442863+00:00, sha e3aba83c5721)
  - site_page: https://docs.ros.org/en/jazzy/Releases/Release-Jazzy-Jalisco.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:47:00.444901+00:00, sha d93c29f23d8e)
  - site_page: https://docs.ros.org/en/lyrical (fetched 2026-08-29T08:47:00.431839+00:00, sha 7c2b021e649d)
  - site_page: https://docs.ros.org/en/jazzy (fetched 2026-08-29T08:47:00.433686+00:00, sha 6647c0e6f73b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.