Willow Garage transfers PR2 support to Clearpath Robotics

Willow Garage, the company that developed both the open-source robot operating system ROS and the PR2 robot, reported today that support and services responsibilities for PR2 have been transferred to Clearpath Robotics, effective immediately.

Willow Garage created eight companies from 2011-2013, but Willow itself basically shut down this summer when most of its employees moved over to its spin-off, Suitable Technologies. Supporting PR2 customers was one of the few services the company has provided since that time.

The company says it will continue to sell its remaining stock of PR2 systems, but going forward, Clearpath Robotics is now the sole provider of hardware and software support to current and future PR2 customers.

“Willow Garage is committed to continue to support customers of its PR2 personal robotics platform,”  Scott Hassan, Willow Garage founder and chairman, said in a statement. “I am delighted that Clearpath Robotics will be fulfilling that commitment at least through 2016.”

Clearpath Robotics is a longtime partner of Willow Garage. It was the first manufacturing partner for Willow’s Turtlebot, a founding sponsor of the annual ROS developers conference, ROSCon, and Clearpath’s CTO, Ryan Gariepy, is a founding board member for the Open Source Robotics Foundation.

According to the companies, interest in PR2 systems should continue to be directed to Willow Garage through willowgarage.com, while members of the PR2 community should direct correspondence to clearpathrobotics.com.

[ photo courtesy of Willow Garage ]