The limitations of ROS 1
ROS (Robot Operating System) is the framework that since 2007 has standardised software development for robotics, providing a communication middleware, visualisation tools, simulation and thousands of reusable packages. But ROS 1 has structural limitations that prevent its use in industrial production: a centralised master (roscore) that represents a single point of failure, no support for real-time communication, no integrated security mechanisms and exclusive dependency on Ubuntu Linux.
ROS 2, whose first stable release Ardent Apalone is published by the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) in December 2017, is a rewrite designed to overcome these limitations while preserving the core concepts that made ROS 1 the standard in robotics research.
DDS as the communication layer
The most significant architectural change is the replacement of ROS 1’s proprietary communication system with the Data Distribution Service (DDS), an industrial standard from the Object Management Group (OMG) for distributed publish-subscribe communication. DDS eliminates the centralised master: nodes discover each other automatically on the network through a decentralised discovery mechanism. If a node disconnects, the rest of the system continues to function.
DDS brings native support for Quality of Service (QoS): each topic can configure reliability, durability, deadline and priority policies. A safety sensor can require guaranteed delivery with minimal latency, while a video feed can tolerate packet loss.
Real-time and lifecycle management
ROS 2 introduces support for real-time systems: deterministic memory allocation, configurable executors and compatibility with real-time kernels such as PREEMPT_RT. These features are essential for industrial robots where a delayed response to a sensor can cause physical damage.
Node lifecycle management defines explicit states — unconfigured, inactive, active, finalised — with controlled transitions. A node can be configured, activated and deactivated without restarting the system, enabling hot updates and structured error handling.
Security and multi-platform
Security is integrated at the middleware level with support for authentication, authorisation and communication encryption based on DDS Security. ROS 2 officially supports Ubuntu, macOS and Windows, opening robotics development to previously excluded platforms.
Link: docs.ros2.org