Points to touch:

• What is ChatGPT
• Why and how it is related to robotics
• How can the robotics industry make use of it better
• Which drawbacks for robotics and roboticists

Intro

In November 2022 OpenAI released ChatGPT and the world was never the same.

Are all programming engineers going to lose their jobs?

How can we take advantage of chatGPT for our career development and for businesses?

All those points and more on the second episode of the Robotics Insider podcast.

What is ChatGpt?

• ChatGPT is a chatbot that is able to answer almost any type of question.
• layer on top of GPT-3.

What is GPT-3?

• It is a language model. It stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3. GPT-3 was developed by OpenAI as a natural language processing system. This means how to understand a language.

What is a language model?

• From Jurafsky, Dan; Martin, James H. (2021). “N-gram Language Models”: “A language model is a probability distribution over sequences of words”

I found that chatGPT is very powerful and can help a lot but also, the numerous examples over the internet show that it doesn’t really understand what it is saying. It looks like this friend that we all have that wants to be the know-all, and when he doesn’t know, he invents

The power of ChatGPT is not only for human languages but also for computer languages.

Is ChatGPT here to take developers’ jobs? 

Well, no, at least not yet.

ChatGPT makes a lot of mistakes while writing code. Especially when the code is complex, the errors are massive.

ChatGPT must be taken as a tool to boost our coding efficiency.

For instance, I know how to code and I understand the different structures required for a program, but I have a problem remembering the exact commands and syntax. With ChatGPT on my side, I can forget about all that because I can ask it about those details at any time.

I think we should not be scared about it right now, but instead, embrace it and learn to use it to our advantage now.

At least now… for sure, in the long run, code will be created by such kinds of AIs and we will still have to be there as architecture engineers. I see ourselves like Iron Man talking to Jarvis. I always thought that if I had one Jarvis, I would also be able to build Iron Man.

How ChatGPT can help developers

• Use it to speed up learning how to program
  • We use it to teach our students
    • Students can ask ChatGPT to explain some code, find bugs in their code, and to 
• Use it to speed up writing code
  • Example Git Copilot: it is a pair programming software that 
  • Suggestions by Alexander Rossler
    • Write algorithms in code
    • Write full ROS nodes
    • Write unit tests for a method
  • Write the structure of the code from a text description
  • Find a bug in the code
  • Writing documentation
  • Port some code from one language to another
  • Simplify code
  • Explain code
  • Simplify/improve code

Always take into account that ChatGPT makes errors. So there should always be a 

Use ChatGPT to make more intelligent robots

This opens a series of new businesses that were at present not possible, for example, the typical robots that interact with humans in order to have a chat. 

• Now in this part, the limiting technology is the voice to chat. You have to take into account that ChatGPT only gets input as text, so anything that wants to be provided to it, needs to be converted first into text. The voice-to-text technology is not in the best state, especially if you are going to put the robot in the wild, so expect to have some misunderstandings due to errors in speech-to-text.

As you can easily check if you activate the Youtube automatic subtitles.

• On the other side, the text-to-voice technology is better and I don’t expect any problems. Actually, there are other artificial intelligent systems that can convert text to speech 

• That also includes the errors that chatGPT provides. ChatGPT doesn’t understand what he says, it is just putting words in a way that may look like a sound speech. Sometimes, it doesn’t really know about it but it doesn’t know that it doesn’t know so it keeps generating text that may make sense. The internet is full of those examples but I would like to share one that I did with ROS, launching this command and asking to chatGPT to explain what that command does.

 

• For businesses, chatGPT errors are important because chatGPT can promise things that are not true. For instance, if a robot says something about your business that is not true just follow the flow of the conversation.

• So for speech interaction, the usage of ChatGPT is clear and straightforward. However, behavior control of the robot, is not so easy and is still not there

• Microsoft released a demo of a robot being controlled by ChatGPT. In their paper, they show how to solve robotics tasks using language models. For instance, they ask the robot to warm the lunch, without specifying where there is something to warm and what that warming thing is. Solving that task requires a lot of other things not currently available in ChatGPT. As they indicate 

“The key challenge here is teaching ChatGPT how to solve problems considering the laws of physics, the context of the operating environment, and how the robot’s physical actions can change the state of the world.”

• Alexander Rossler reported to us some success in asking a robot arm to move the end effector in a given shape.

KEY POINT: ChatGPT doesn’t understand the relation between the text he wrote and the real-world equivalent. Even if it can say, “move the end effector to the right” it cannot correlate it with any command in the robot arm (even if it can write a ROS program that does that). You can tell it, “write a ROS program that moves this arm to the right” and it will write the code and that code may work, but tell it “move the arm of that robot to the right” and it will be clueless

• I presume, the next  Robocup At Home competition is going to have all the robots understanding the speech. The problem will be translating that understood speech into the sequence of actions that the robot has to do

Use ChatGPT to make better robotics businesses

I asked ChatGPT how it can help implement better robotics businesses. He answered this:

As a language model, ChatGPT can help robotics businesses in a number of ways. Here are some examples:

1. Providing technical assistance: ChatGPT can help answer technical questions related to robotics, such as programming, hardware design, and sensors. This can help businesses optimize their robotic systems and troubleshoot any issues that arise.
2. Conducting market research: ChatGPT can help businesses research the market for robotics products and services, including identifying potential customers, competitors, and trends. This information can help businesses develop effective marketing strategies and stay ahead of the competition.
3. Developing training materials: ChatGPT can help businesses develop training materials for their employees and customers, including user manuals, tutorials, and educational videos. This can help ensure that users are able to use the robotic systems effectively and efficiently.
4. Assisting with customer service: ChatGPT can help businesses provide customer service for their robotic products and services, by answering common questions and resolving issues. This can help improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
5. Supporting innovation: ChatGPT can help businesses stay up to date on the latest advancements in robotics technology and research, by providing access to the latest scientific publications and news. This can help businesses stay ahead of the curve and drive innovation in the industry.

I think he is concentrating too much on the part of the business rather than on the part of robotics. Its answer can be applied to any type of business. For example, new businesses that can be done now and couldn’t be done before ChatGPT:

• All businesses where HRI was a limiting thing:
  • Robot Guides of areas – Pepper style but really working
  • Camareros
• All those tasks are just doing text to text jobs

Limitations

• ChatGPT doesn’t know anything prior to its release date. You can though provide extra information in the chat so ChatGPT can 
• Chatgpt invents things as the example of ‘roslaunch’ demonstrates. So we have to take care of what he says
• Chatgpt is very good at programming simple things but sucks at complex code. It can easily generate code that is subtly wrong
• Even if GitHub copilot and ChatGPT can write code in C++ it looks like they are not strong in that language so they are more focused on 

Conclusions

• Everybody has to learn to use ChatGPT and how to use it to speed up and improve its work. It doesn’t matter 
• Nobody has an advantage right now. Everybody knows about ChatGPT and is learning to use it. We are all at the same square. In the past, if you got access to some tool like this in advance to others, you may have an advantage. Now, when the new tool spreads fast around the globe, you don’t have any advantage. I would say you are in a disadvantage if you don’t learn to use it and apply it to your business

Points to touch:

• Is not Google but Intrinsic
• Is not ROS but the branch of Open Robotics
• What does all that mean?
• What could be the implications for the future of ROS and its community?

Intro

In December of 2022, big news shocked the ROS community: ROS was acquired by Intrinsic In this episode of the Robotics Insider we are going to discuss:

• What actually happened and why?
• What can this mean for the future of ROS?
• Why does it matter for the ROS community?

All those points and more on the first episode of the Robotics Insider podcast.

What is Intrinsic

Intrinsic is a robotics software company with the idea of making industrial robots easy to use by means of easy interfaces and applications (not about creating easier industrial robots, but better usage software). Wendy Tan, CEO of Intrinsic says: We aim to build a platform that connects the providers of automation hardware and software — think equipment providers, or AI and machine learning experts — with businesses who need custom manufacturing solutions. With intuitive software, AI-enabled solution development and scalable infrastructure, more people will be able to build, design and deploy robotic applications to solve problems in ways they couldn’t before Make industrial robot programming available, highly effective option for non-experts From the web on Intrinsic: To build a software platform for intelligent robotics; one that brings together the best of our collective capabilities and makes them usable for others Intrinsic started as a group of people inside the X lab of Google. They did some pretty impressive systems that can plug/unplug USB cables, mount furniture and even mount architectural pieces. Then in 2021 graduated from Alphabet and became an independent company part of the Alphabet ecosystem with the name of Intrinsic. Then in 2022 they acquired Vicarious, a company about using AI to automate tasks that are too complex to be automated by traditional means.  Then in December of 2022, Intrinsic acquired the Open Source Robotics Corporation, that is, the business part of Open Robotics. So the first part of the title of this podcast is wrong: Google did not acquire ROS, but Intrinsic acquired ROS.

What is the structure of Open Robotics

For those who don’t know, Open Robotics is the company behind the development of ROS. Open Robotics is composed of two parts:

• The Open Source Robotics Foundation
• The Open Source Robotics Corporation

OSRF is the one that holds the copyright of ROS, gazebo, Turtlebot, ROSCon and Open-RMF OSRC is the one that does commercial projects, and dedicates time to develop and maintain parts of ROS, Gazebo and others.  Also, OSRC has two parts, the OSRC which is mainly based in California, and the OSRC-SG based in Singapore and which is the one leading the development of Open-RMF

What has Intrinsic actually acquired

Intrinsic has acquired the OSRC and the OSRC-SG Intrinsic has not bought the OSRF, the branch that has the IP of ROS, Gazebo and Open-RMF.  So what this means is that ROS, Gazebo, ROSCon, Open-RMF and Turtlebot are not part of the sale. They remain part of the OSRF and do not belong to Intrinsic. So the second part of the title of this podcast is also not true: nobody has acquired ROS If Intrinsic is buying only the OSRC which doesn’t hold the IP of ROS: What is Intrinsic actually getting on the sale and why? It is not clear to me. As far as I can see, they are getting the team that developed the ROS and OSRC current projects business. They are getting the know how.

Why is Intrinsic buying it?

In my opinion, Intrinsic is focused on the construction of their platform. For that, they want to be compatible with ROS because is one of the standards. For that, they need to have the core team that developed and maintained it for the last 10 years. Getting into the OSRF would only dilute their energies, and after all, they can make pressure afterwards with their contributions.

Why is Open Robotics selling?

They feel like the development of the three products was starting to be overwhelming, and cannot be maintained in the same way, only under the shoulders of Open Robotics. As Brian Gerkey (former CEO of Open Robotics) stated The robotics industry has grown tremendously in size and complexity, and its need for reliable open source software continues to grow […] At the same time, it has become increasingly challenging for OSRF, as a small organization, to meet the diverse needs of such a large and growing user community. OSRF could not simultaneously restructure to a more durable governance model while continuing to service OSRC’s customer commitments. And he continues Intrinsic is the ideal home for OSRC, where our team will have a greater ability to improve ROS, Gazebo, and Open-RMF so that they can be used in even more domains, with ever-higher demands for software quality, testing, and platform support. So it happens that the system was too complex to be managed by Open Robotics alone, so by going to Intrinsic, they will have more resources to do it.  Tully Foote (former ROS platform manager of Open Robotics) said, this arrangement  is in the best interest of the projects, the user community, and the robotics industry. We believe that this approach will accelerate the development of the projects while simultaneously improving engagement with our user communities But he doesn’t say in which sense and how. Also, it is not clear how the acquisition by Intrinsic is going to alleviate the first problem. Actually, in my opinion is going to worsen, since a lot of the developers are removed from their day to day development. Until the community organizes to start supporting it in the correct way, it can take months if not a year to continue development. Tuly Foote indicates that some things don’t change. ROS 2 Iron Irwini will ship next May on World Turtle Day, and Gazebo H will ship next September, but I don’t see how is this going to be possible if the people in charge of that is moved from their duties to go to work at Intrinsic in other things. Are they going to keep their tasks? As for what is in the release, I understand they are not. As Brian Gerkey states At Intrinsic, I’ll be leading the former OSRC team, working directly with the CEO of Intrinsic, Wendy Tan White. We will be contributing open source software to the community, continuing to work with our existing customers, and also building valuable new types of tools, products, and services for commercial customers with and on top of our open source tools. I did not find any place where it is clearly stated that there will be a team at Intrinsic working on the development of the next releases of ROS2 and other software, even if the question was clearly stated in the Discourse Forum. The only piece I found is from Tuly Foote, stating that  the OSRC team has time allocated for training and knowledge transfer to the OSRF team and will also be available to assist with any urgent issues. Andreas Bihlmaier (head of robotics software architecture at Intrinsic) says Prior to the acquisition, developers at OSRC split their time contributing to core repositories and servicing commercial projects. The status quo is not fundamentally changing So how are the releases of ROS2 and others been maintained is a mystery since the maths doesn’t work.

What is the organization of Open Robotics after the acquisition?

• OSRF is still the administrator of the Github, continue running the project websites (ros.org, gazebosim.org, Discourse, Answers, etc), putting together ROSCon, and developing the TurtleBot
• The CEO of the OSRF is now Vanessa Yamzon, and the CTO is Geoffrey Biggs
• The name of Open Robotics will still be property of OSRF
• The growth of ROS will be managed in a different way. The OSRF will be in charge of that but in a closer way to that of the Linux Foundation. Instead of being the OSRC the one that gets the money to finance the development of ROS in the OSRF, it will be the members of the OSRF the ones that finance it.
• This transition is going to be developed in the next months
• Intrinsic (plus OSRC) will be just another company involved in the development of ROS like any other could be, like yours, like yours or like yours

How is OSRF going to be financed?

As Geofrey Biggs says assets already held in reserve, OSRF also received proceeds from the sale of OSRC and OSRC-SG. Aside from this, OSRF has various sources of funding such as licensing, royalties, and grants to support its ongoing operations. We also receive financial support from companies and individuals who are beneficiaries of OSRF’s projects. Also said in typical Foundations actual development work is performed by interested contributors throughout the community, from large commercial users to individual hobbyists. OSRF also has outside contractors who maintain and improve the infrastructure, such as the build farm, that the projects depend on.  One of those contributors will be Intrinsic.

Where is the business?

Building a software platform that makes robotic applications easier to develop, deploy, and maintain

• Creating an App store for robots. Of course they will try to create such a store on their platform as so many others are trying to do right now.
• Provide cloud services
• Selling data
• Adding extra app layers that require licensing (like with Android), also known as introducing proprietary components.

How is it going to affect to ROS?

P1 As Brian Gerkey indicates: Being part of Intrinsic not only allows us to invest more into ROS, Gazebo and Open-RMF, but to go further by making new options available to developers through the Intrinsic platform. P2 OSRF, not Intrinsic, will be responsible for directing the roadmap for ROS, Gazebo and Open-RMF Project So, it is supposed that the development of ROS will remain independent of Intrinsic… in theory. Because at the end, priorities will be decided by the largest contributor to the foundation. Tully Foote says: Of course the broader community–from large corporations to bug-fixing students–have features that they want implemented. As with any organization that contributes to open source software, Intrinsic has an interest in seeing features it wants or needs added to ROS as a priority. This does not mean that any features Intrinsic is not interested in will be ignored or abandoned. As core contributors, committers and maintainers, the OSRC team at Intrinsic will continue to ensure contributors have a fair chance of seeing their feature or fix being merged into the source code.[…] OSRF and Intrinsic both want a future where Intrinsic is just one of a large group of contributors. So far, the ROS developers team of Intrinsic have assigned a certain amount of time to teach the OSRF team and to keep the development of some parts. Tuly foote says: In the mid and long-term, Intrinsic is interested in seeing ROS, Gazebo, and Open-RMF become even more useful for in-production, for-sale robots in the same way that the Linux kernel is useful for in-production, for-sale devices from televisions to mission-critical servers. This naturally leads to an interest in stability of the core software and features. However, Intrinsic also wants to see the software grow in usefulness and applicability. The OSRC team at Intrinsic will work on both making the existing features more stable and reliable as well as adding new features that benefit both Intrinsic and the community. P3 We can expect proprietary code to be released by Intrinsic. As Geoffrey Biggs says you can expect that as the OSRC team at Intrinsic makes contributions that those contributions will be copyrighted by Intrinsic.  But this is not something new, since other companies have been already doing the same, like Apex.AI, Willow Garage and others. P4 We can expect a transition to a model like the one of the Linux Foundation. And what does this mean: that the core will be maintained by a small group of hired people. Also, that feature or bug fixing requests will be processed according to the level of contribution to the Foundation. And by contribution, I mean money. P5 My feeling is that they want to have the robot app store, with extra services in the cloud for the development of the apps, continuous integration and so. Put it simple to developers to create robot apps, and also simple to distribute, and to users to use.

Conclusion

What is clear is that the year of 2023 is going to be an interesting year for the robotics industry and that ROS is more alive than ever. 2023 is going to be the year that puts ROS to the test. If it is able to survive this year with the planned release of ROS2 Iron in May and Gazebo H in September, then its success is assured. If you, like us, believe that ROS is going to be the framework of the robots of the future, then start training your team on ROS skills with the live trainings that The Construct provides. We have a training in 3 days about ROS2 basics including navigation and grasping, and another training on robot fleet management using the Open-RMF software. Check the link below to know more and start the training of your team. See you in two weeks with another episode about how ChatGPT is going to affect robot development.

Disclaimer

We tried to contact the people of Intrinsic and Open Robotics involved in the whole process to get their opinions but none of them replied to us. All the opinions are the ones of the person who said them. We tried to be as objective as we can be based on the information that is available. We are happy to be corrected on any mistake we may have done, and we will publish a correction note if we receive a correction.