Modular Customizable ROS-Based Framework for Rapid Development of Social Robots

Developing socially competent robots requires tight integration of robotics, computer vision, speech processing, and web technologies. We present the Socially-interactive Robot Software platform (SROS), an open-source framework addressing this need through a modular layered architecture. SROS bridges the Robot Operating System (ROS) layer for mobility with web and Android interface layers using standard messaging and APIs. Specialized perceptual and interactive skills are implemented as ROS services for reusable deployment on any robot. This facilitates rapid prototyping of collaborative behaviors that synchronize perception with physical actuation. We experimentally validated core SROS technologies including computer vision, speech processing, and GPT2 autocomplete speech implemented as plug-and-play ROS services. Modularity is demonstrated through the successful integration of an additional ROS package, without changes to hardware or software platforms. The capabilities enabled confirm SROS's effectiveness in developing socially interactive robots through synchronized cross-domain interaction. Through demonstrations showing synchronized multimodal behaviors on an example platform, we illustrate how the SROS architectural approach addresses shortcomings of previous work by lowering barriers for researchers to advance the state-of-the-art in adaptive, collaborative customizable human-robot systems through novel applications integrating perceptual and social abilities.