**ROS 2 Lyrical Luth** is the twelfth ROS 2 distribution and another Long Term Support (LTS) release. It was published on May 22, 2026 by Open Robotics with a 5-year support cycle until May 2031, making Lyrical a primary ROS 2 production platform alongside Jazzy Jalisco.
**Base platform**: Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 'Resolute Raccoon' (Tier 1, amd64 and arm64). Additionally supported: RHEL 10 (amd64) and Windows 11 (built with Visual Studio Build Tools 2022, amd64). The default middleware (RMW) is eProsima Fast DDS; alternatives include Eclipse Cyclone DDS, RTI Connext DDS, GurumNetworks GurumDDS, and the Zenoh-based rmw_zenoh (non-DDS).
**Key new features**: (1) Callback Group Events executor — a new executor reducing CPU usage by ~10–15% compared to single- and multi-threaded executors. (2) AsyncNode (rclpy) — native asyncio integration with ROS callbacks and timers. (3) rosidl::Buffer — zero-copy data publishing, e.g. directly from GPU memory. (4) URDF 1.2 — support for quaternions, capsule geometry, and acceleration/deceleration limits. (5) rosbag2 — remote recording control, programmatic Python APIs, circular recording with file limits, and message-loss observability. (6) Native fish shell support via setup.fish and expanded ros2 param/service/topic commands.
**Lifecycle**: initial release May 22, 2026, planned end of life (EOL) in May 2031 (5 years, per the ROS 2 LTS policy for even years). Lyrical Luth is the twelfth ROS 2 release (after Kilted Kaiju from 2025) and the first LTS based on Ubuntu 26.04.
**Standards and distribution**: code in C++17 and Python 3 (the version shipped with Ubuntu 26.04). ROS 2 is fully open source under the Apache 2.0 license, with packages distributed via apt (Debians), Docker images, RPM (RHEL 10), a Windows installer, and building from source (colcon).
Middleware is a software layer that mediates between applications, services, sensors, drivers, and execution layers. In robotics, middleware is typically responsible for inter-process communication, message passing, hardware abstraction, and module integration within a single system. The most widely used robotics middleware is ROS (Robot Operating System), which provides a publish-subscribe message bus, service calls, and a rich ecosystem of packages.
A Runtime is the environment or execution layer used to run code, load libraries, manage dependencies, and operate applications or services — either in real time or during normal system operation. In robotics this includes real-time operating system (RTOS) runtimes, ROS 2 executor runtimes, containerised execution environments (Docker, podman), and embedded C++ runtimes on microcontrollers.
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.
An API Library is a software package that exposes programmatic interfaces for communicating with a device, service, or system. In robotics it typically forms a lightweight integration layer built on top of the manufacturer's official API or an open-source project, abstracting low-level protocol details and providing language-native bindings (Python, C++, Java, etc.).
A Developer Tool is software designed to support the development workflow, including configuration, debugging, testing, monitoring, validation, and integration of robotic and embedded systems. Examples include IDE plugins, visual debuggers, log analysers, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test harnesses, and code-generation utilities specific to robotics platforms.
Robot Control denotes the role of software responsible for motion control, command execution, coordination of actuating elements and the direct operational logic of the robot.
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 'Resolute Raccoon' — released April 2026, 5-year standard support (until 2031, extended to 2036 with Ubuntu Pro). Tier 1 host platform for ROS 2 Lyrical Luth and ROS 2 Rolling.
Installation: `sudo apt install ros-lyrical-desktop` (Ubuntu 26.04) or Docker `osrf/ros:lyrical-desktop`. Full desktop ~15 GB; minimal ros-base ~2.5 GB. Requires Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Tier 1) or Docker on other systems.
License family: Permissive
First stable release — Ubuntu 26.04 baseline, default Fast DDS, new Callback Group Events executor (~10–15% less CPU), rclpy AsyncNode (asyncio), zero-copy rosidl::Buffer, URDF 1.2, expanded rosbag2, and fish shell support.
