ROS News for the Week of March 31st, 2026
The ROS community announces a packed 2026 event schedule and the next major long-term support release.
The ROS community's weekly update for March 31st, 2026, is headlined by the official start of the release process for ROS 2 'Lyrical Luth,' the project's next Long-Term Support (LTS) distribution. A concrete timeline has been published, with a critical RMW (ROS Middleware) feature freeze scheduled for April 6th, 2026. Developers are encouraged to contribute by joining the dedicated ROS Lyrical Release Working Group. This marks a major step in the platform's evolution, ensuring stability and long-term maintenance for enterprise and research robotics projects.
Alongside the core software news, the update showcases significant hardware and community momentum. Robotis, maker of the popular Dynamixel servos, has released the HX5-D20, a sophisticated 5-finger, 20-degree-of-freedom robotic hand with built-in ROS 2 support. The community calendar is overflowing with events, from a Y-Combinator hackathon by innate.bot to major conferences like the global ROSCon in Toronto in September. Other notable developments include the MRReP mixed-reality path editing tool for mobile robots and a call for workshop and presentation proposals for ROSCon, with deadlines in early April.
- ROS 2 'Lyrical Luth' LTS release process begins, with RMW feature freeze on April 6th, 2026.
- Robotis releases HX5-D20, a 5-finger, 20-DOF robotic hand with native ROS 2 support.
- Packed 2026 event schedule includes ROSCon Global in Toronto, hackathons, and global meetups starting in April.
Why It Matters
This sets the roadmap for the next stable foundation for thousands of commercial and research robots worldwide.