A Hollywood OS is used in the film industry to make computer screens more realistic. What is seen in the Star Trek TV series is such a system. It's a fictional computer display which shows scientific graphics to improve the illusion that the actors are pressing important buttons and talking about something meaningful.
To investigate if such a description make sense for ROS (Robot operating system) we have to describe which kind of role modern robotics plays in the education industry. The first robots and Artificial Intelligence projects were introduced with the advent of the Fifth computer generation in the early 1980s. In that time, the first books were published about the subject and early robotics documentaries were produced. The idea was to describe a potential future in which robots and intelligent machines are doing all the hard work in the factory and maybe they can even replace human employees.
Since the 1980s the narrative has become unchanged. That means, in more recent videos about robots the same vision of the fifth generation computer is drawn. According to the outlook, the AI revolution will start soon and robots will play an important role in future economy. The robots shown in demonstration and in robotics challenges like Robocup are mostly driven by the ROS operating system. It's a platform which allows to connect vision system, pathplanning and high level automatic control. On the first look, ROS is a software similar to serious projects like the Linux kernel. It can be installed on an Ubuntu system and then the robot will do an action. For example the robot will explore a maze or control a self-driving car.
The interesting fact is, that ROS controlled robots are never used in real automation projects but only in demonstration and synthetic competitions. The aim of these projects is not to utilize a robot as a tool, but the idea is to illustrate the vision of the fifth computer generation. The robot is used to make a story more realistic. A potential interaction with the story teller would produce the following dialogue:
storyteller: “in 10 years from now, robots are used in the factory to pick&place objects”.
audience: “That sounds great, but is such goal not unrealistic?”
storyteller: “No it's very likely, here the prototype robot is able to do the task with toy blocks.”
audience: “Sounds interesting, can you explain the technical details?”
storyteller: “Sure, the ROS software analyzes the images of the webcam and controls the robot arm.”
audience: “Cool, I'm convinced that the story make sense and in 10 years robots will replace human workers in the factory.”
The interesting point is, that the ROS software isn't used to control a robot, but it's main purpose is to convince the audience that the plot about the fifth computer generation is valid. It's not a technical innovation, but part of storytelling. Therefore ROS is a hollywood operating system. It is used to impress the non-experts and tell them the myth about robots who can be used in reality.
The funny thing is, that such kind of ideology isn't connected to the ROS operating system itself. But every newly started robot control system can be utilized to improve a story about robots. The starting point is, that the storyteller likes to convince the audience that the robot revolution is near. Therefore he programs a piece of software which is able to succeed in a synthetic robotic competition. The result is, that the non-expert audience will believe the plot. The assumption is, that if the robot's hardware is available plus the robot software, this is equal to that the story about fifth computer generation is valid.
The only disadvantage of ROS and similar projects is, that if the audience investigates some of these projects in the past, he will recognize soon, that it's not possible to use robots for practical applications. ALL, which means 100% of the robot projects which were tested in factory automation, for household automation, for self-driving cars and for automating the crane on a construction site have failed. In most cases, the ROS operating system was used, but sometimes more advanced software was programmed. A failure means, that the robot hasn't increased the productivity but it's doing the opposite. That means, the machine is not helping the employees, but it makes the work more complicated.
It's interesting to know, that more failed projects in the reality have increased the need for story about futuristic robots. Today's audience is easier to convince that within 10 years the robot will automate the factory than previous audience from the past. And lot of energy is put into the task to build and demonstrate more advanced robots which are able to proof that the story is valid. The most surprising fact is, that even the latest generation of biped robots which can walk like a human can't be used for anything in real applications. The robot is part of story about the future of automation and the tragedy is that the vision can't be realized.