Alphabet's robotics unit Intrinsic announced Intrinsic Core at ROSCon 2026 in Toronto on Tuesday, open-sourcing the foundational software it uses for real manufacturing deployments. The Robot Operating System-compatible release is free under the permissive Apache 2.0 license and runs on local hardware.
The package bundles the building blocks developers normally have to code from scratch: a real-time control framework that adjusts a robot's path mid-move from sensor feedback, pose estimation built on Nvidia's FoundationPose so robots can locate parts without rigid fixtures, collision-free motion planning, adaptive grasp planning, plus simulation, calibration and ROS drivers. Intrinsic also released the Open Machine Tending Solution, a reference design for CNC machine tending compatible with hardware from Universal Robots and Fanuc.
The timing targets a specific gap: only about 8% of U.S. and European machine shops currently use automation, largely due to cost and integration complexity. By giving away the same infrastructure it runs internally, Intrinsic is betting that lowering the barrier to entry will pull smaller manufacturers into automation faster than proprietary tooling has managed.