IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2023 - 125

for the developer to also take on the role of the user if he
or she is redesigning or adapting an existing open source
project. It is also possible for a user to become a part of the
development team, which can occur when the community
actively engages with the developers of popular open source
hardware projects.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ORH
To understand why someone would consider developing or
using an ORH project, it is important to delve into the
advantages and challenges associated with such hardware
from the perspective of both the users and the developers
separately (summarized in Table 1 and also available on the
ORH website [16]).
ADVANTAGES FOR THE USER
One of the primary goals of open source projects is to allow a
community of users to build on a specific work, sharing
knowledge, know-how, resources, tools, technical solutions,
and documenting all the issues and problems
encountered during the development
process. The key advantage that an ORH
project offers over commercially available
alternatives is customization. Users have
the flexibility to understand how the system
works, modify it, and improve it to
meet their requirements or the specifications
for a particular application. Particularly
in a rapidly growing field such as
robotics, where new applications are regularly
identified, hardware adaptability can
significantly help condense the development
timeline. Although creating their
own hardware from scratch might offer
users even more flexibility, the time and
human labor allocated to its development
could prove to be prohibitive. Commercial
robot hardware products, on the other
hand, are significantly costlier to purchase
or license in comparison to ORH, with additional servicing
fees for repairs and upgrades. An ORH project thus presents
a more economical option for the user to quickly test whether
the hardware is appropriate for his or her implementation
without any long-term commitment.
Another advantage ORH offers users over commercial
ORH can notably reduce downtime and expense of restoring
the robot or robot component back to function.
The swift pace of development in robotics often renders
components of the robot unusable and out of date within a
few years. Robot software developers may be able to remotely
ship updates on their products to maintain compatibility and
patch issues, whereas robot hardware manufacturers often
require users to purchase a new version of their product. In
contrast, ORH allows the user to decide if and when they want
to upgrade. ORH users can also choose to only upgrade specific
components or functions of the hardware. In commonly
used ORH, the active user community as well as the developer
regularly release these updates to the hardware through design
changes or extending alternative component options.
"
PARTICULARLY IN A RAPIDLY
GROWING FIELD
SUCH AS ROBOTICS,
WHERE NEW APPLICATIONS
ARE REGULARLY
IDENTIFIED, HARDWARE
ADAPTABILITY CAN SIGNIFICANTLY
HELP CONDENSE
THE DEVELOPMENT
TIMELINE.
„
products is repairability. A purchased product might either
require a service person visit or a return to the manufacturer,
a limitation magnified in hardware components in comparison
to software, which could be patched remotely. Similarly,
commercial hardware often does not allow users to perform
maintenance on their own. On the other hand, the ORH could
be repaired and maintained on site by the user. Although this
might require sufficient knowledge of the hardware components,
popular ORH projects further benefit from their strong
user community and developer input, which can offer quick
support for common repairs and hardware fixes. In this regard,
CHALLENGES FOR THE USER
Many ORH projects require the user to fabricate and assemble
parts on his or her own, possibly while using unfamiliar
tools and processes, such as molding with 3D-printed parts
for hybrid deposition manufacturing
(HDM) [22]. The knowledge barrier of
reproducing hardware can be more pronounced
for some users, especially when
replication of the hardware relies on
sophisticated equipment, resources, and
tools, or on significant skills and expertise
of users. ORH developers may release bad
documentation and insufficient fabrication
and assembly instructions, which further
raise the barrier for the nonexpert user.
This lack of subject-area expertise is one of
the key hurdles ORH users face in the
early stages of hardware implementation.
Even if users have the expertise and access
to requisite manufacturing tools, they may
not be able to allocate the time required to
fabricate and assemble the components.
Some developers will sell prefabricated
parts or even completely preassembled versions
of their hardware to bypass the user knowledge and
time required to put their hardware together. Well-funded
research groups typically choose the route of buying the part
kits, whereas other teams would try to replicate the parts
themselves using any available resources. But even with these
purchased ORH kits and components, the user retains the
advantages of ORH, such as repairability, upgradability, and
adaptability outlined in the previous section, while circumventing
the challenges of recreating the hardware on his or
her own.
Once an ORH project is developed, tested, and disseminated,
users create small or large communities that inform
the core development team about issues that may arise and
also contribute to the further development or modification
of the hardware to suit different needs. Unlike commercially
available hardware that might offer service contracts and
maintenance assistance, an ORH component can suffer from
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IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2023

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