Started as a ROS workgroup, FIMA opened a new theme to study the potential of the platform economy in the context of autonomous mobile machines, to build new cooperation in the software business in the field and to move software development from separate projects towards the platform economy.

In this theme a new joint project has been started:
PEAMS: Platform Economy for Autonomous Mobile Machines Software Development

The project will address some of the major challenges in software development, such as

• Software is complicated, large and without standards
• Heavy SW development and maintenance costs
• Vendor locking – all OEM software is in-house or made with partners with NDA
• Sub-systems and interfaces are not compatible with other equipments or customer´s systems
• SMEs have no markets to specialize and develop their own software
• No tradition on ecosystems or use of open interfaces in large scale

Another activity in the theme is doctoral thesis work ESEAM (Empirical evaluation of software lifecycle management tools)
It will study new methods and tools that increase productivity of software development for autonomous mobile machines i.e. implementing a real-time shared map from observations of multiple machines, user interface for simulated warehouse or adding a new actuator both physically and in software to a pre-existing robot.

More information available in project sites.