Earlier this year, PAL Robotics introduced an important upgrade for all TIAGo and TIAGo Base users: PAL Robotics distro Gallium (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and ROS Noetic LTS), the upgraded version of PAL robotics distro Ferrum (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and ROS Melodic LTS).
As of April 2023 and May 2023, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and ROS Melodic LT (components of PAL robotics distro Ferrum) reached their end of life.
What does this mean for TIAGo and TIAGo Base users? The PAL Robotics distro Ferrum will officially reach its End of Life on 31 December, 2023. Beyond this date, there will be no further maintenance or support for any software packages within this distribution. To stay ahead of the curve and ensure your TIAGo or TIAGo Base robot operates at its peak performance upgrade to the latest OS and Middleware offered by PAL Robotics: PAL Robotics distro Gallium (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and ROS Noetic LTS).
TIAGo: available robot upgrades
Earlier this year, PAL Robotics released an upgrade of the PAL Robotics distro Ferrum for TIAGo and TIAGo Base users: the PAL Robotics distro Gallium, based on ROS Noetic, this transition offered several key enhancements.
ROS Noetic, primarily leverages Python 3, providing users with the flexibility to migrate their ROS packages to Python 3. Furthermore, ROS Noetic employs Gazebo 11, a significant step up from Gazebo 9 in ROS Melodic. It’s important to consider that ROS Noetic is the final official release of ROS 1.
One of the most notable changes between ROS Melodic and ROS Noetic is the shift to Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) and the utilisation of Python 3. This opens up a world of opportunities for developers, who can now take advantage of Python 3’s vast library ecosystem. Read more about ROS Noetic and how to install the programme and don’t miss our other news in this blog post.
Coming soon! TIAGo the mobile manipulator in ROS 2
ROS 2 offers greater robustness, flexibility, and scalability by providing better support for real-time and embedded systems, a more modular architecture, and improved communication protocols, and will soon be available for the TIAGo robots family!
At PAL Robotics we recently demonstrated a TIAGo robot fully operated in ROS 2 that makes use of the ros2_control framework, Navigation 2, MoveIt 2, and an enhanced TTS (text-to-speech) interface at the ICRA 2023 conference.
ROS 1 and ROS 2 will coexist in our robots for as long as the full migration to ROS 2 takes place. The new OS is set to take centre stage in the near future, making its debut on more of our robots. Read more in this blog post and stay tuned for the latest updates on ROS 2!
To find out how to upgrade your TIAGo or TIAGo Base robot to ROS Noetic, get in touch with our team. Learn more about TIAGo the mobile manipulator and the endless possibilities for your research that the robot supports. Read more about TIAGo Base, the customisable solution for indoor deliveries.