(Click for larger image)The components are built on DoD-mandated
Joint Architecture for Autonomous Systems (JAUS) specifications and provide "drop-in capabilities" for robot system developers to add functions such as vehicle control, sensor processing, path following, mapping, obstacle detection and avoidance, and operator interfaces to existing platforms, API says.
API also offers a toolkit, jLib JAUS, which is intended to assist developers in creating their own JAUS-compliant components. The toolkit is available for Windows XP, Windows CE, and several other OSes. Presumably, the toolkit also supports Windows XP Embedded, the componentized version of Windows XP.
According to API, the jLib JAUS toolkit provides low level JAUS message packing, transport, and routing capabilities that enable developers to create JAUS-compliant applications or retrofit existing capabilities to function within existing JAUS systems, and supports all of the core JAUS messages and components, as well as multiple message transport layers including Ethernet, RS- 232/485, and shared memory.
API's components represent the first step in the company's efforts to commercialize robotics technologies to support and leverage the DoD's efforts to deploy unmanned vehicles for the battlefield, according to API president Todd Jochem. "In the past, there hasn't been significant attention paid to transitioning new robotics technologies to the commercial marketplace," says Jochem. "In many cases, there wasn't any real market. However, now there is a clear customer with real needs that our technology can address."
In addition to selling the components ala cart to end customers as add-on modules, API is working with robotic platform suppliers to add these technologies as standard features on their current and future line of vehicles, the company says.
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