ALAMEDA, Calif. — Wind River Systems Inc. this week released the latest version of its VxWorks real-time operating system or RTOS, which is designed to help software developers create embedded applications that meet industrial requirements for productivity, security, and safety.

“Demonstrating our commitment to RTOS innovation, Wind River is disrupting and redefining the embedded development paradigm with VxWorks, making development simpler, thereby driving more productivity,” stated Michel Genard, vice president of product at Wind River. “Today’s RTOS must embrace modern development practices. This means being compatible with popular frameworks, languages, and methodologies being used today by developers, without compromises on security, safety, performance, and reliability.”

Wind River supports languages including ROS2

VxWorks supports developers with popular programming languages and libraries, as well as cloud-based tools and infrastructures. Wind River said it includes the following features:

• Support of C++17, Boost, Python, and Rust collection of technologies, along with continued support for languages like Ada and SPARK
• New LLVM-based infrastructure that enables support for a broad set of tools and frameworks
• New open-source board support packages (BSPs) such as Raspberry Pi and TI Sitara AM65x for quick prototyping and flexibility of choice
• OpenSSL 1.1.1 for the most up-to-date cryptography libraries

Wind River Labs complements VxWorks by offering access to compatible technologies, collaborative software projects, proofs of concept, open-source integrations, and pre-release and experimental software. It also includes software development kits for the Robot Operating System (ROS) 2, OpenCV, and the Internet of Things for public cloud providers.

VxWorks and robotics development

“VxWorks has allowed leading robotics manufacturers to reduce costs and improve performance by replacing hardware-based functionality with software-based tasks,” Michel Genard, vice president of product at Wind River, told The Robot Report. “As an example, customers can develop an architecture in which multiple integrated controllers share a common database and infrastructure, with the scalability to handle multiple workloads of varying criticality.”

“Our work with Wind River is driven by the need to develop advanced driver monitoring systems and better in-cabin experiences as the future of mobility takes shape,” said Dr. Rana el Kaliouby, co-founder and CEO of Affectiva. “This release of VxWorks complements our strategy to ensure safer and more enjoyable transportation through in-cabin sensing AI that measures what’s happening with people in a vehicle.”

“VxWorks enables rapid data processing for real-time actions that will allow robots to work reliably and consistently in close quarters with human employees,” Genard said. “The robot would be able to rapidly process data, including potentially dangerous changes in its environment, and immediately respond to them. VxWorks supports ROS 2, enabling use cases such as teams of multiple robots and production environments on a real-time platform.”

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“VxWorks enables deterministic applications scaling from very small compute packages that provide the real-time performance required for safe and efficient robotic functions,” he added.

“The latest release of VxWorks will complement the joint OTA [over-the-air] software update and data management solution we’re integrating with Wind River, providing a safe, secure, and reliable operating system foundation for the end-to-end software development life cycle,” said Keefe Leung, vice president of product management at Airbiquity.