This page is offered only as a courtesy to our visitors. DeVivo employees have been involved in the development of JAUS since its inception and we offer products that use the SAE standards. It is our position that the standard offers an excellent set of interface definitions for use in mobile unmanned systems and should be considered by all robot developers. Any discrepancies between this page and other resources are left to the reader to resolve. If you would like more information about the JAUS standard, please explore the following links:
What is JAUS?
JAUS, the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems, is an architecture standard for unmanned and robotic systems that is sponsored the Society of Automotive Engineers AS4 technical Committee on Unmanned Systems. The JAUS standard is a common language, enabling internal and external communications between unmanned or robotic systems. It incorporates a component based, message passing architecture that specifies data formats and protocols. It is a publically available, commercial standard available through the SAE. The purpose of the JAUS standard in the industry is to:
- Reduce life cycle costs through increased competition in the marketplace, and by promoting “plug and play” modules
- Reduce development and integration time
- Provide a framework for technology insertion by providing a definition of interoperability to unmanned and robotic systems,
- Accommodate expansion of existing systems with new capabilities through expandable interfaces.
- Increase reliability through the reuse of known components and enhanced life-cycle support.
It is important to note that an imperative of using the JAUS standard is that “systems engineering must still occur”. JAUS only addresses the logical interfaces and not algorithm design or other application specific behaviors. JAUS does not imply any specific product end use, nor is it altered in any way for use in either commercial or military applications. SAE-AS4 JAUS is set of documents that define interfaces. It is not a commodity item, it is not a system design and it is not an implementation.
Where did JAUS come from?
JAUS was developed in 1997 by a combined team of industry, government and academia. Originally chartered by the Deputy Director, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, Acquisition, Technology, Logistics, Strategic and Tactical Systems/Land Warfare, JAUS has been in the public domain for over 10 years.
In 2004, JAUS began its migration to an international commercial standards organization, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). In 2008, the migration was completed and JAUS is now under the domain of SAE Aerospace Standards (AS-4), and is supported by Aerospace Information Reports (AIR) and Aerospace Recommended Practices (ARP). The purpose of JAUS remains unchanged and continues to be improved to incorporate the best interoperability practices by members of industry, government and academia.
What is the current state of JAUS?
The AS-4 JAUS standard is currently being used in numerous small projects and several large military programs. The Office of the Secretary of Defense Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise mandates the use of JAUS by all programs. JAUS is a requirement for the Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) and the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship for unmanned vehicles. The National Bomb Squad Commanders Advisory Board has recently indicated that JAUS will be required for robots procured using grant money.
The availability of information regarding the use of JAUS in the commercial market is limited due to the proprietary nature of commercial robotics. However there are several commercially available tools that foster the use of JAUS such as Re2 JAUS Software Development Kit and Open JAUS, an open-source software development kit. The use of JAUS in the international community is known to DeVivo only by evidence of membership in the standards committee by Canadian, British, German, and most recently, Israeli citizens.
SAE AS-4 is supported by OEMs, suppliers, robotics and unmanned systems integration companies, consulting firms, government, academic institutions and others across the unmanned systems industry. DeVivo AST co-founder Woody English currently serves as Chair of the AS-4 Executive Committee and offers his leadership and expertise to further the standard.
More Information
The AS-4 JAUS standards documents are publically available and can be purchased at www.sae.org. Additional historical information can be found at www.jauswg.org.