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Robotair Builds⿻

Estimated time to read: 2 minutes

Concept Overview⿻

A Build in Robotair represents the automated process of transforming your robotics source code into a production-grade, deployable software artifact. It encompasses code compilation, dependency resolution, packaging into container images, execution of tests, and publishing of signed outputs to your container registry and security compliance.

Robotair builds are designed to operate as standalone or CI-integrated pipelines that follow best practices for secure, reproducible robotics software delivery.

Role in the Platform⿻

Robotair’s build system is central to enabling continuous integration and release. Once configured, builds can be triggered manually or automatically upon code changes. They output all artifacts required to deploy your software to robots through the Robotair Deployments system.

Key Capabilities⿻

  • Build ROS1 and ROS2 packages
  • Dependency management
  • Execute tests with support for ROS-Industrial’s industrial_ci
  • Package your application into OCI-compliant container images
  • Generate software bill of materials (SBOM) for compliance
  • Sign and verify the resulting image using Sigstore Cosign
  • Publish the container images to Docker Hub, GitLab Container Registry, or any private registry
  • Generates a config that defines build metadata and automation steps which you can use across any CI servers or run locally

Build Pipeline⿻

The diagram below shows the logical flow of a Robotair Build pipeline. Each step is designed to run sequentially in your CI/CD environment or from the Robotair interface.

flowchart LR
    D[Build ROS Workspace]
    D --> E[Run Unit Tests]
    E --> F[Package as OCI Image]
    F --> G[Software Compliance]
    G --> H[Security Audit]
    H --> I[Sign Artifacts]
    I --> J[Release]

This pipeline can be executed either locally or integrated into your CI servers for automation and repeatability. The Build system automates the most complex and error-prone tasks in preparing robotics software for production. By abstracting this process into repeatable, auditable steps, Robotair ensures that every image you ship is secure, consistent, and ready to deploy at scale.