Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle (AUV) Workbench

Overview

The NPS Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle Workbench (AUVW) is experimental open-source software that supports physics-based mission rehearsal, real-time task-level control of robot missions, and replay of recorded results in support of autonomous unmanned underwater, surface and air vehicles.

Users are provided with multiple views for a simple 2D plot, geographic layers, and X3D graphics visualization and telemetry plotting capabilities. Missions are written using the Autonomous Vehicle Command Language (AVCL). Together these lead to an in-depth understanding of robot operations. Extensible 3D (X3D) graphics, KML and other open data standards are used throughout. This cross-platform software is implemented using Java and XML, using shared version control and best practices for maximum repeatability and usefulness.

• New! MTS/IEEE OCEANS 2016 Conference Tutorial presentation (powerpoint, .pdf) along with a new ethics paper and presentation.
• Flyer, poster, slidesets archive and video demonstrations
• Presentations, papers, reports, theses and dissertations
• Open-source license (.txt), license details, help pages, documentation pages, and javadoc software documentation
• Autonomous Vehicle Command Language (AVCL) and SAVAGE Modeling and Analysis Language (SMAL)
• Prior tutorial slides (.pdf slides, additional handouts) presented at the IEEE OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicles 2012, 24-27 September 2012, Southampton UK.

Installation and Open-Source Software Development

For users:

• Prerequisite: install Java. You can also verify that you have Java installed.
• Updated version, 18 September 2016. We are resuming numerous improvements.
  Autoinstaller download: official release (date), the autogenerated nightly build (date) or else the 31 July 2015 build. Also available: installation help.
• Prerequisite: install Java. You can also verify that you have Java installed.
• Mailing list: auvworkbench mailing list (auvworkbench@movesinstitute.org) and auvworkbench list archives for general discussion and updates

For developers:

• This codebase now build and runs using either Java 7 or Java 8 (preferred).
• Recommended: install Netbeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE) as your programming environment. Alternatively, use the Java Development Kit (JDK) via command line or another IDE.
• Web view of source files are found under the Sourceforge xmsf project. Subversion checkout:
  • svn co https://svn.code.sf.net/p/xmsf/code/trunk/AuvWorkbench
• Additional mailing list: xmsf-commits mailing list and xmsf-commits list archive for tracking detailed software changes.
• Reporting issues: XMSF Issue Tracker for bug reports and feature requests.

X3D Models Archive download options:

• The autoinstaller includes the model archive excerpt by default.
• The archive can be retrieved using the AUV Workbench Updates menu.
• Can directly install X3dExamplesSavageAuvWorkbenchExcerpt.zip.
• The archive tree is usually extracted to your root directory.

Example Missions

• Example mission reports show typical AUV Workbench products.
  • USV Box Test mission, metadata, report, KML track
  • UUV Depth Circle Test mission, metadata, report, KML track
  • UAV Waypoint Mission mission, metadata, report, KML track
  • WWW Grid Demo1 UUV Mission mission, metadata, report
  • WWW Grid Demo2 UUV Mission mission, metadata, report
  • Strategic-Agenda Mission Execution Automaton (MEA) mission, metadata, report
• Version-controlled mission projects can be loaded, replayed and analyzed in the AUV Workbench.
  • AuvwMissions            in Savage Subversion archive
  • AuvwMissionsFOUO in SavageDefense Subversion (access controlled)
• Exercise telemetry archives include original data collections used to create projects.
  • Savage Robot Telemetry Archives and SavageDefense Robot Telemetry Archives (access controlled)

Additional Resources

• Open-DIS software distribution on SourceForge
• Savage XMPP Chat server includes an auvw chat room
• Extensible 3D (X3D) Graphics support includes X3D Resources, X3D-Edit, X3D examples, and X3D for Web Authors book, course
• X3D model archives are available at Savage, X3dExamplesSavageAuvWorkbenchExcerpt.zip, (open access) and SavageDefense (controlled access).
• Savage Developers Guide and SavageDefense Developers Guide provide general information on application configuration and tool setup.
• Savage Subversion, SavageDefense Subversion and Savage Developers Guide: Subversion provide more information on version-control details using Subversion.
• Savage Jenkins, Savage Developers Guide: Jenkins and SavageDefense Jenkins describe the continuous integration servers providing automatic nightly build support.

Contact

Questions, suggestions and comments about these resources are welcome. Please send them to Don Brutzman (brutzman at nps.edu)

Revised 18 September 2016. Online at https://savage.nps.edu/AuvWorkbench/auvw.html

(official disclaimer)