IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2023 - 123

S U RV E Y
Open Robot
Hardware
Progress, Benefits, Challenges,
and Best Practices
By Vatsal V. Patel ,
Minas V. Liarokapis ,
and Aaron M. Dollar
Technologies from open source
projects have seen widespread
adoption in robotics in recent years.
The rapid pace of progress in robotics
is in part fueled by open source projects,
providing researchers with resources,
tools, and devices to implement novel ideas
and approaches quickly. Open source hardware,
in particular, lowers the barrier of entry to
new technologies and can further accelerate innovation
in robotics. But open hardware is also more
difficult to propagate in comparison to open software
because it involves replicating physical components,
which requires users to have sufficient familiarity and
access to fabrication equipment. In this work, we present a
review on open robot hardware (ORH) by first highlighting
the key benefits and challenges encountered by users and
developers of ORH, and then relaying some best practices that
can be adopted in developing successful ORH. To accomplish
this, we surveyed more than 80 major ORH projects and initiatives
across different domains within robotics. Finally, we
identify strategies exemplified by the surveyed projects to further
detail the development process, and guide developers
through the design, documentation, and dissemination stages
of an ORH project.
BACKGROUND
The open source paradigm of disseminating new technologies
has gained traction over the last several decades, particularly
in rapidly evolving deep tech fields such as robotics, for
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2022.3225725
Date of current version: 19 December 2022
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its benefits in expediting innovation through the sharing of
knowledge, tools, resources, and technical solutions with a
community of researchers, citizens scientists, hobbyists, and
technology enthusiasts. The rapid pace of progress in robotics
has been due in part to the availability of high-quality
open source software and hardware solutions that allow
roboticists to easily use, adapt, and improve them in their
own applications, subsequently accelerating the implementation
and testing of novel ideas in a variety of robotics
domains. Particularly, open source software has seen widespread
proliferation in robotics [1], [2] in the form of middleware
suites [3], [4], computer vision libraries [5], robot control
packages [6], simulation environments [7], [8], and robot
motion planning platforms [9] among others.
In comparison, open source hardware projects have trailed
software in the number and type of hardware available [10].
In general, hardware is more challenging to propagate than
SEPTEMBER 2023 IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE
123

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IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2023

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