Spes Robotics

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Cyberbotics Ltd. Cyberbotics develops the open source Webots robot simulation software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Spes Robotics, and what were your goals?

We wanted Spes Robotics to provide custom design, developments and documentation about Webots and ROS2.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

The founder of the Spes Robotics is a former employee of Cyberbotics.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They helped us design and implement a better interface between Webots and ROS 2, fixed bugs, provided support to our junior developer, and contributed to the documentation.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There was one senior developer from Spes Robotics working with us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We were able to release new versions of our Webots ROS 2 packages, including contributions from Spes Robotics. We also published a ROS 2 tutorial which was tested and reviewed by Spes Robotics. Here is a summary of the achievements:

• Improved various aspects of the Webots ROS 2 interface: Continuous Integration (CI), - ros2_control integration, - C++/Python plugin mechanism, - Windows and macOS support, and - documentation.
• Implemented Webots support for importing Collada files on the fly.
• Contributed to the Webots ENU/FLU support.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had weekly meeting on Discord to monitor the progress and define objectives. Everything went fine and results were achieved on time.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We are most impressed by the advanced tech skills, efficiency, and availability of the developer working for us.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No.