Army Robotic and Autonomous Systems Assets
U.S. Army Futures Command (AFC) has a goal of accelerated delivery on HMI-F. As a signature AFC ‘transformation in contact’ initiative, AFC is working with partners to deliver HMI-F capabilities to deployed warfighters for experimentation, analysis, and real-world feedback in 18-24 months.
The DoD’s transition from traditional paper-based design to model-based systems engineering (MBSE) as part of its digital transformation is a pivotal step towards achieving agile development of complex military systems and ensuring high-quality outcomes across the system lifecycle. However, in the specialized field of autonomy-enabled missions, meeting modeling needs with existing tools can be challenging due to the rapid evolution of technology and its impact on requirements.
The following assets have been developed to bridge this gap by providing a comprehensive modeling framework and libraries of reusable content, and enable Government, academia, and industry defense robotics partners to readily and uniformly meet objectives.
Click the following heading below to learn more about each asset:
Army Robotic Common Software (ARCS) Library is a government managed, industry informed library of modular software components utilizing the Robotic Operating System 2 (ROS 2) industry open standard. The ARCS Library is focused on providing autonomous ground mobility software modules with increased maturity and suitability for use, and reuse, by government, industry and academic partners. The ARCS Library supports the Army’s Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) directives by enabling the Army to continuously capitalize on commercial innovation across the rapidly evolving autonomy market.
Click Here to View GVSC Documentation about ARCS
The ARCS Community of Practice is providing the foundation to enable Industry and Government to effectively collaborate in transitioning ground autonomy capabilities.
Industry is invited to join this Community of Practice:
Requirements for Access:
- Completed ARCS COP Application
- Government can register for an account
Note: Access granted at the individual level. Organizations must be a NAMC member FIRST, and then each individual must independently apply.
The Robotic Technology Kernel (RTK) is a government managed library of modular software components developed by commercial industry partners along with contributions from academia and Government labs. RTK is the Robotic Operating System 1 (ROS 1) Autonomy Software Library. Common software modules from the RTK Library have been leveraged to support a wide range of Science and Technology (S&T) and Program of Record (PoR) efforts to develop robotic and autonomous systems include ROS-M and ARCS.
Requirements for Access:
- Please follow instructions on the link.
The Robotics and Autonomous Systems – Ground (RAS-G) Interoperability Profile (IOP) is a series of documents that provides software and hardware interfaces for ensuring a modular open systems Approach (MOSA) for the major subsystems of RAS-G systems.
Requirements for Access:
- Submit completed RAS application
- After application is approved, individual may request to access assets via the RAS COI at namcgroups.org
- Government can register for an account
Note: Access granted at the individual level. Organizations must be a NAMC member FIRST, and then each individual must independently apply.
ROS-M is a software registry for military Robotics and Autonomy Systems (RAS) and related documentation. It provides a trusted community of Government and Industry contributors with the means to collectively cultivate a federated body of re-useable, ROS-compatible software for developing defense robotic systems.
Requirements for Access:
- Please follow instructions on the link.
The Ground Combat Systems Common Infrastructure Approach (GCIA) is a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) standard to define a detailed and comprehensive architecture for the desired interoperability, adaptability, and technology movement of ground combat systems. It is being developed by PEO GCS, and administered through the NAMC managed MOSA community of interest.
Requirements for Access:
- Individual must submit a completed MOSA Application
- After application is approved, individual may request to access assets via the MOSA COI at namcgroups.org
- Government can register for an account
Note: Access granted at the individual level. Organizations must be a NAMC member FIRST, and then each individual must independently apply.
Autonomous Ground Vehicle Reference Architecture (AGVRA) was chartered by U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center Ground Vehicle Robotics to provide a framework for establishing Army-sanctioned architectures to enable the scalable design and integration of Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV) capabilities.
Requirements for Access:
- Please follow instructions on the link.
Note: This site is not managed by NAMC, and is a government managed site.
The Warfighter Machine Interface is the Army’s extensible user interface software for control of robotic and manned vehicles and payloads, to include multi-domain operations. The WMI is a software product line comprised of a multi-vendor library for both hardware and software. It also incorporates Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA) approach that allows contributions from multiple Government, Industry, and Academia partners.
Requirements for Access:
- Please follow instructions on the link.
