Message Modeling for the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS)

The Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS) is a standard for sensing, control, and computational communication of components for unmanned systems. This paper presents a modeling environment capable of producing a domain-specific prototype of the software necessary for inter-computer communications. A metamodel is used to provide the domain-specific modeling language to model both the messages used in JAUS, and the shell interfaces for components that transmit and receive those messages. The produced artifacts are C and C++ code that can be used in unmanned systems and simulations of such systems, including tests that validate the structure and behavior of the generated code. The generated code is compatible with standard JAUS implementations, and is validated using the Open JAUS open source API and framework. Future work describes the second spiral of features and behaviors (currently in the design phase). The case study and test environment for the software generated by this project is an autonomous ground vehicle, modeled on a Ford Escape Hybrid that is used in laboratory experiments.