The Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) is pleased to announce the creation of the Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA), a new initiative to strengthen the governance of our open-source robotics software projects and ensure the health of the Robot Operating System (ROS) Suite community for many years to come. The OSRA will use a mixed membership and meritocratic model, following other successful foundations for open-source projects, including The Linux Foundation and the Eclipse Foundation. The OSRA is extending an open invitation to all community stakeholders to participate in the technical oversight, direction, development, and support of the OSRF's open source projects – ROS, Gazebo, Open-RMF, and their infrastructure. Involvement across the robotics ecosystem is crucial to this initiative. The center of the OSRA will be the Technical Governance Committee (TGC), which will oversee the activities of various Project Management Committees, Technical Committees, Special Interest Groups, and Working Groups.

Looking back, Google's emergence as a robotics powerhouse seems obvious--and inevitable. First came the scattered hires of roboticists and the release of self-driving cars into Bay Area traffic. Then, the search giant reportedly bought two humanoid HUBO robots from South Korean university KAIST. But it wasn't until December's revelation that Google had acquired eight robotics companies--including Boston Dynamics, maker of BigDog, WildCat and a stable of other astonishing Pentagon-funded bots--that it became clear: Google means to build robots. Although the prospect of merging Google's insatiable appetite for data with sprinting, leaping hardware has inspired an unsurprising battery of Skynet jokes, the response among roboticists has been overwhelmingly positive.

Today, the Open Source Robotics Foundation announced a whole bunch of stuff, including a big pile of money from Toyota Research, what is probably an even bigger pile of money from Toyota Research, and the formation of the for-profit Open Source Robotics Corporation. That last thing might sound a little worrisome, since corporation-ness and open source-itude are often at odds, but we checked in with OSRF CEO Brian Gerkey, who explained how it's all going to work. The most straightforward bit of news is that the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is making a charitable donation of US 1 million to the Open Source Robotics Foundation to "advance the development and adoption of open source robotics software." In other words, TRI thinks that OSRF has been doing pretty good work with ROS and Gazebo over the last couple years, and they're supporting that vision financially. Since it's a donation, OSRF can use that money however it wants, meaning that it's going to benefit the development of ROS and Gazebo for everyone.