Apex.Grace 3.3 and Apex.Ida 3.0 include the following new benefits:
(Final) Integration of Apex.Ida (v3) with Apex.Grace
Upstream sync of Apex.Grace APIs to ROS 2 Galactic
NXP i.MX 8M platform support
In addition to the features explained below, we continued our work to stabilize APIs in preparation for 2024 and 2025 SOPs. This included adding nice-to-have features and expanding our product documentation. Each week our excitement grows as we see all the pieces coming together for Apex.Grace and Apex.Ida Version 3 (v3) — our hard work and technological risks are paying off and we’re eager to see the complex, challenging and downright cool systems our customers can build with it!
Integration of Apex.Ida (v3) with Apex.Grace
This announcement marks the completion of the integration work for the third version of Apex.Ida with Apex.Grace. The last two big checkboxes for this work were enabling Python API support and introspection type support. By adding support for those we’ve enabled the popular ROS 2 tools like RViz (3D visualization), rqt (plugin-based introspection tooling) and rosbag (data record and replay). This marks an important feature parity milestone compared to Apex.Ida (v2) with Apex.Grace, and we can now recommend the new combination for all customers.
The performance of the middleware and framework has never been better. Now that Apex.Grace can leverage the middleware developed completely in-house, we are able to completely tailor Apex.Ida to the performance needs of the deployed Apex.Grace system. Contact us if you want to discuss what is possible to create and deploy with Apex.Grace and Apex.Ida.
Upstream sync with ROS 2 Galactic
Apex.Grace contains foundational APIs that are based on ROS 2 distributions. We work continuously to keep the relevant Apex.Grace APIs in sync with the upstream ROS releases. Apex.Grace v3.3 is in sync with ROS 2 Galactic. This allows our customers who prototype with ROS 2 Galactic to migrate to Apex.Grace without rewriting significant amounts of code.
Because we offer a stable and certified version of ROS 2, we cannot always provide the bleeding edge changes or features from upstream — that is the cost of stabilizing and hardening the APIs. However, by remaining within a few ROS 2 distributions of the most recent ROS 2 release, we can provide a natural migration path from compiling and running pure ROS 2 APIs vs the hardened Apex.Grace APIs.
NXP i.MX 8M platform support
The i.MX platform contains applications processor ARM cores used by IOT, autonomy, and robotics companies (and more) alike. Our customers have requested Apex.Grace platform support for the i.MX 8M so that they can seamlessly deploy the applications they’ve developed to this production-capable hardware compute platform.
Goodbye, Summer
As we look forward to the end of the year, two things stand out: the start of production (SOP) dates for our customers are rapidly approaching, and the list of features required for v3 of our two products is rapidly falling to zero. We have worked diligently all year to ensure these two topics converge — now it is time for you to reach out and learn more so that you can start your next project and hit the ground running!
If you are interested in Apex.AI products for your projects, contact us.
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