The Internet of Things is a concept that rapidly evolves into a web where machines talk to each other. The robots are a large part of this industry together with millions of makers and hackers.
The RIOT is an open-source operating system designed to solve three problems: data, network, and embedded hardware. All these three resources are highly related one with each other in the IoT space.
The operating system has functions based on a microkernel architecture with support for real-time and multi-threading applications. Compatible with programming languages such as C and C++, the RIOT can run on a wide range of 16-bit and 32-bit embedded platforms. In addition, the OS is compatible with multiple drivers, cryptographic libraries and data structures. About the hardware, the RIOT can control sensors and other hardware parts. RIOT also has support for networking protocol suites including RPL, UDP, TCP and CoAP, and network stacks such as IPv6 and 6LoWPAN.
The RIOT runs on any 16/32-bit hardware as a Linux or MacOS process, which facilitates the use of standard development and debugging tools (GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), GNU Debugger, Valgrind, Wireshark).
With origins in the FeuerWare OS and developed by FU Berlin, INRIA and the HAW Hamburg, the operating system has been reinvented and released again by Atmel. Its architecture has now support for ARM Cortex processors (M0, M3, and M4) as well as the ARM7.
Developed for IoT applications, the operating system is compatible with ecosystems like Arduino Due, Atmel ATmega2560 or the Nordic nRF51822. Download the RIOT OS here.