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Proposal: URML (substrate-neutral robot intent) capability-manifest mapping for legacy Velodyne VLP/HDL via ros-drivers/velodyne — and a routing question #573

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@idoco2003

Hi @ros-drivers/velodyne maintainers,

Proposing a URML v0.1 capability-manifest mapping for the legacy Velodyne VLP-16 / VLP-32C / HDL-32E / HDL-64E family over ros-drivers/velodyne (the community-maintained de facto driver). URML (Apache-2.0) is a substrate-neutral spec for robot intent.

Routing question is the primary design point. The Velodyne brand is now Ouster-owned (post-2023 merger). URML has already engaged Ouster in an earlier outreach wave on their modern product line. This RFC explicitly asks whether the legacy-VLP / community-driver engagement should be (a) on ros-drivers/velodyne, (b) a courtesy cross-link on the existing Ouster thread, or (c) both.

URML's adapter request lands on a community-org surface, not an OEM; the legacy-fleet audience is real (VLP-16 deployments persist across field-mobile fleets long after the OEM merged) but ros-drivers maintainers do not speak for Ouster on roadmap.

This is proposal-only, part of URML's Move #10 outreach (perception-vendor wave, 29 engageable RFCs).

Full RFC: https://github.com/URML-MARS/URML/blob/main/docs/rfcs/0130-velodyne-via-ros-drivers-outreach.md

Questions worth maintainer input on:

  1. Routing. Issue on ros-drivers/velodyne, courtesy cross-link on the Ouster thread, or both?
  2. Per-point-attributes Spec RFC shape (intensity / dual-return / time-of-flight per point).
  3. Dual-return mode declaration.
  4. Maintenance posture. Long-term legacy support, or migrate-to-Ouster-OS as legacy hardware ages out?
  5. Anything else.

Ido Yahalomi (URML maintainer, urml.dev, greenvh@gmail.com)


Authoring disclosure: URML is the invention of Ido Yahalomi. The outreach prose is AI-assisted (Claude, under the maintainer's review). See VIBE.md. The maintainer reads and approves every post before it ships. Reviewers who prefer human-only correspondence are welcome to say so.

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