A Docker-Enabled Real-Time Framework for Robotic Applications in Heterogeneous ROS 2 Environments

Real-time performance remains a core requirement for safety-critical robotic applications. ROS 2 has become a de facto middleware standard, while Docker is increasingly adopted for modular and portable deployment. However, embedded hardware updates often constrain Linux distributions and real-time kernel versions, while existing software stacks depend on older ROS 2 releases and legacy libraries. This mismatch forces costly porting and revalidation, motivating heterogeneous deployments that mix ROS 2 versions across host and Docker container runtimes. Yet the overheads introduced by Docker and cross-version ROS 2 communication are not well quantified in terms of real-time guarantees. This paper presents a Docker-enabled real-time framework for evaluating robotic applications in heterogeneous ROS 2 deployments. The framework integrates an RT-PREEMPT–patched Linux kernel, Dockerized ROS 2 distributions, and configurable cross-version communication pathways to enable controlled, repeatable experiments without full-stack migration. We empirically quantify Docker-induced effects on real-time execution using task periodicity, jitter, and response time, and assess ROS 2 communication using end-to-end latency under host-only, container-only, and hybrid configurations. To demonstrate practical viability, we apply the framework to an operational mobile-robot use case that integrates legacy control code with new modules, including a reinforcement-learning decision layer, within a mixed host–container ROS 2 stack. The resulting analyses provide reusable tooling and actionable guidelines for deploying deterministic ROS 2 systems under containerized heterogeneous constraints.