Software & Middleware

Autonomy Stack

An autonomy stack is the layered software architecture of an autonomous robot, conventionally decomposed into perception, localization and mapping, prediction, planning, and control modules connected by well-defined interfaces, typically over middleware such as ROS 2. The modular design permits independent development, testing, and validation of each layer, in contrast to end-to-end learned systems that map sensors to actions with a single network, and hybrid stacks that embed learned modules within the classical decomposition.

Why it matters for physical AI

Whether foundation policies replace the full stack or slot in as modules is a central architectural question for deployment, since modular interfaces provide the testability and traceability that safety cases currently require.