Snfrw

Snfrw is an open-source software framework designed to support the development, simulation, and deployment of modular robotic systems and sensor-networked applications. The project provides a common application programming interface for heterogeneous hardware, standardized data models, and a plugin architecture that allows researchers and developers to assemble perception, planning, and control pipelines without rebuilding components for each platform. Snfrw emphasizes interoperability with established robotics ecosystems and aims to integrate smoothly with popular simulation and tooling environments.

Originating in academic settings, Snfrw began as an effort to standardize the software surface for robotics education and research. The first public releases appeared in the late 2010s, and subsequent versions have expanded the framework to support more hardware, sensors, and use cases. The project is maintained by a global community of contributors and maintains accompanying documentation, tutorials, and example projects to ease onboarding and collaboration.

Key features include a lightweight, event-driven core engine, a modular plugin system, and a data bus that enables decoupled communication between components. It provides a hardware abstraction layer to simplify driver integration, perception pipelines for sensors such as cameras and lidars, and interfaces for motion planning and control. Snfrw also offers simulation support or adapters for common simulators, along with bindings for languages such as Python and C++ to facilitate rapid prototyping and experimentation. The framework is designed to be cross-platform, with emphasis on portability and reproducibility across development, testing, and deployment environments.

Snfrw is used in research labs, education settings, and robotics competitions, where it serves as a baseline for building and sharing modular robotic workflows.