Gazebo PMC Meeting Minutes 2026-02-23
The robotics simulator's steering committee approved a new release cadence and major infrastructure changes.
The Gazebo Project Management Committee (PMC) outlined significant strategic and technical shifts during its February 23, 2026 meeting, signaling a major evolution for the open-source robotics simulator. The committee formally passed a proposal to establish a new 'Rotary' rolling release cadence, moving away from traditional scheduled releases to a more continuous delivery model, with a target shift to March for major version milestones. This was accompanied by the approval of server-only packaging changes for the current 'Gazebo Jetty' release, which are now ready and require volunteer testing (PR 12).
On the technical front, the PMC approved landing Dart physics engine version 6.16.6 into the stable repository and completed the migration of Gazebo's OCI (Open Container Initiative) images to the openrobotics GitHub organization, centralizing infrastructure. A major operational discussion focused on the 'Gazebo-classic transition post-mortem,' which highlighted the high maintenance costs of managing 15 separate code repositories. The committee is now actively investigating consolidation strategies to improve efficiency. Furthermore, steps were initiated to create a dedicated working group tasked with defining the long-term future and roadmap for the Gazebo project.
Other updates included progress on automating changelog generation (PR 1447), readiness for a Zenoh load session configuration review (PR 733), and an update to gzweb to support gltf/glb file loading with planned WebGPU support. The meeting also addressed ongoing build farm issues and the need for a plugin for simulating LEDs to be improved before integration into the core software. These collective actions represent a concerted push to modernize Gazebo's development workflow, reduce technical debt, and better position the platform for the future of robotics simulation.
- Approved new 'Rotary' rolling release model and March release cadence shift for more continuous updates.
- Finalized server-only packaging for Gazebo Jetty and migrated OCI images to openrobotics GitHub org.
- Discussed consolidating from 15 high-cost repositories and forming a new working group for Gazebo's future roadmap.
Why It Matters
These changes will streamline development, reduce maintenance overhead, and provide a more stable, modern deployment experience for robotics engineers.