Intel RealSense SDK 2.0

An SDK (Software Development Kit) is a curated set of libraries, interfaces, tools, sample code, and documentation intended for building applications and integrating with a specific hardware device, platform, or service. In robotics, an SDK typically exposes device control, telemetry, sensor access, configuration, and execution functions, significantly reducing the time-to-first-integration for developers targeting a specific robot or platform.

A Driver is a software layer responsible for communication with a specific hardware device or component. In robotics, drivers enable support for sensors (LiDARs, cameras, IMUs), actuators, motor controllers, grippers, and other modules at the hardware or low-level OS layer. They abstract device-specific protocols (USB, CAN, UART, EtherCAT) and expose a standardised interface to the middleware or application layer above.

A Perception Stack encompasses the software layers that process data from cameras, LiDARs, IMUs, microphones, and other sensors in order to recognise the surrounding environment, perform localisation, detect and track objects, and interpret the scene. It is typically the first processing stage in an autonomous robot's data pipeline, feeding its outputs to planning and control stacks.