CORTEX: a software suite for faster and easier robot controller engineering

CORTEX is designed for both scientific research and industrial applications. It addresses the entire robotic system lifecycle, from prototyping and scaleup to operation and maintenance.

CORTEX outpaces other state-of-the-art robotics frameworks (ROS/ROS2, OROCOS, RTMAPS, etc.) in several ways:

• Performance, with hard real-time framework optimization for shorter cycle times and reduced delays in event handling.
• Complexity management based on meta-components lets users map controllers hierarchically and manage different operating modes, enabling the dynamic reconfiguration of internal wiring. This simpler, better-organized architecture design process allows more complex scenarios to be addressed.
• A holistic approach based on proven controller architectures, with all the tools and resources necessary to develop and operate robot controllers with a single suite of tools that work together seamlessly.
• Model-driven engineering, with graphical modelling and code generation to automatically generate executable application skeletons. Graphical modeling ensures architecture sanity. It also sharply cuts down development time, facilitates standardization, and improves reliability of the generated code.

In the nuclear industry, remote handling is used to manipulate dangerous objects in hot cells and glove boxes, for example.

CORTEX facilitates the development of hard real-time controllers so that developers can rapidly integrate all the functions required for effective remote handling, covering all aspects of the tasks:

• Connection of multiple master and slave arms as needed.
• Interaction with the digital twin and scripting language to facilitate preparation of the tasks.
• Operator assistance for faster, safer, and more precise execution, with features like 3D supervision, virtual guides, and active collision avoidance.