Thanks for downloading OpenJAUS and/or signing up for the OpenJAUS Newsletter! Many exciting things are happening with OpenJAUS these days and the OpenJAUS team is excited to share these changes and additions with you!

1. OpenJAUS Developer’s Conference a Big Success

2. OpenJAUS User’s Stories

3. OpenJAUS v3.3.0 Release a Success

4. Download Critical Updates Today with OpenJAUS v3.3.0a

5. ojNodeManager Service Beta Testing

6. OpenJAUS 3.3.1 Development Cycle Needs More Developers

7. Sponsor OpenJAUS!

OpenJAUS Developer’s Conference a Big Success

On July 11, 2008 the OpenJAUS development team hosted a Developer's Conference in Columbus, OH. About a dozen JAUS developers, many who have never used OpenJAUS were in attendance. Tom Galluzzo and Danny Kent presented material at the conference and reviewed the latest OpenJAUS tutorials. Thanks to all that attended and extra special thanks to Battelle for hosting us! You can find out more about the OpenJAUS DevCon at the OpenJAUS website, including a link to the slides which were presented at the meeting.

OpenJAUS User’s Stories

Many companies, universities and organizations, both public and private, are using OpenJAUS in their projects. We have started collecting stories from these users and publishing them on the OpenJAUS website. We would like to hear from you! Have an exciting or novel project that is using OpenJAUS? Want to get the word out about your products and applications? Contact us and we will be happy to include your information on the OpenJAUS website!

OpenJAUS v3.3.0 Release a Success

OpenJAUS v3.3, the latest version of OpenJAUS, was released on July 10, 2007. It features all the messages in the JAUS Reference Architecture 3.3, a runtime Node Manager and Communicator component and a component framework. All of these make the task of building your JAUS complaint robot significantly easier. The success of the new code has gotten the attention of the press. Check out these features:

RoboticsTrends.com: New Open Source Software Speeds Robotics Industry Progress

Robots.net: Download OpenJAUS v3.3 and Free Your Robots

LinuxDevices.com: Updated Review of Robotics Software Platforms

There have been over 100 downloads of OpenJAUS v3.3.0 in less than a month. This is very exciting for OpenJAUS, but also for all JAUS developers and especially for OpenJAUS users. The JAUS market penetration opens up your vehicles, devices and systems to interoperate with more and more third party systems. Here are some interesting statistics from our downloads:

·  60% of downloads have been for the Microsoft Windows development environment

· 33% of the people that downloaded the code indicated it is for commercial use, 27% school and the remaining 46% for private use

·  downloads have come from a variety of users, from big defense contractors, small robotics companies and a wide variety of educational outlets

Thank you to all our beta testers for your hard work in making this release a success!

Download Critical Updates Today with OpenJAUS v3.3.0a

In the month since OpenJAUS v3.3.0 was released, there have been a few bugs and issues reported. These minor issues have been resolved and a new revision of the codebase has been released with these bug fixes. You can download OpenJAUS v3.3.0a from the website.

Changes:

· Ticket 92: Fixed issues compiling with GNU gcc 4.3

· Ticket 93: Fixed issue with invalid bit mask for JAUS_TIME_STAMP_MILLISEC_MASK

· Ticket 95: Fixed possible segmentation fault while using ojVehicleSim

· Fixed a possible race condition using the Queue object in libopenJaus/util

Changed ojCmpt interface so jausMessageDestroy is no longer needed in message callback functions. This conforms to the one-to-one create-destroy relationship that developers must stick to when using the component framework. ojVehicleSim updated to reflect this change. 

ojNodeManager Service beta testing

The OpenJAUS node manager, ojNodeManager, which is distributed with the current OpenJAUS release, is designed to be run as a console application. A new version of the node manager has been developed which is designed to be run as a background service in Linux or a NT service in Windows. The initial code for this has been developed and alpha tested. We are currently looking for a small set of dedicated OpenJAUS users who would be interested in helping us conduct a small beta test of this prior to including it in a future release. Let us know if you’re interested in participating.

OpenJAUS v3.3.1 Needs Your Help

Work has begun on the next version of the OpenJAUS codebase. OpenJAUS v3.3.1 will have many exciting new features. Here are some of the things we’re planning:

JAUS Over IP

The next version of the node manager will allow you to collaborate and test your code with other OpenJAUS users over the World Wide Web. We are developing this capability using the version 2 of AS-5669 which is currently in draft form, so it will be complaint with the overall JAUS / AS-4 architecture. Here’s how it will work. The OpenJAUS node manager is going to have the ability to automatically create a Peer-to-Peer JAUS network through the internet. It will automatically connect to a host Node Manager running on the OpenJAUS.com server and allow you to send JAUS messages to all the other JAUS subsystems running on the internet. No special VPN software, hardware or special code will be required; the node manager will simply do all the work. Of course this feature is optional; you won’t have to expose your system to the outside world. A few simple config file changes will allow you to setup your own private LAN.

Graphical User Interface for OpenJAUS Node Manager

Another exciting development for 3.3.1 is the addition of a more powerful and intuitive interface to the OpenJAUS Node Manager itself. The capability to run a local application and point it to any known OpenJAUS node manager and inspect the health and status of that Node Manager in real time will be included.

OpenJAUS API Documentation

Also for 3.3.1, we will be doing a lot of work to finally add Doxygen style comments throughout the OpenJAUS codebase. This will allow us to generate more in-depth and complete documentation of the codebase and APIs for all developers.

All of this is going to take a lot of work. That is why OpenJAUS is asking for help. If you are an experienced OpenJAUS user and you want to lend a hand please respond to this request. This is a great way to make a real difference in the robotics community, so join on in!

Sponsors

OpenJAUS would like to thank the companies and organizations which support its efforts to develop and make available a robust implementation of the JAUS standard. Without their help and support, OpenJAUS would not be available today.

Nomadio, Inc. - Creates frequency agile radio solutions for applications which require high reliability wireless connectivity. Supports OpenJAUS web hosting.

Office of Naval Research (ONR) – Developing software for the next-generation of JAUS/AS-4 code. Sponsors the JAUS Tool Set project.

Defense Technologies Inc. (DTI) – Develops software and hardware to support unmanned systems. Supports OpenJAUS through development efforts, sponsored the new C++ Node Manager development.

The University of Florida’s CIMAR Lab – Initial developers of the OpenJAUS codebase and made it available publically as open source. Continued involvement in the development and testing of OpenJAUS.

Mountain Top Technologies (MTT) – Developing the AGNAS system to autonomously tow aircraft. Supported OpenJAUS beta tests and contributed the JAUS v 3.3 Planning Messages.

Become a Sponsor

If your organization depends on OpenJAUS and you want to see it well maintained and continuing to do more for you, then think about becoming a sponsor! This can be in the form of donations or contributed work. We plan on highlighting our sponsors and their projects on our website, which is getting more and more traffic every day. Sponsoring organizations will also be included in our presentations to the standards bodies, as we bring new capabilities to JAUS, SAE, and STANAG. In addition, your products and projects will be advertised in our developers’ conferences. This is a great way for new organizations to get some recognition in the industry. Contact the OpenJAUS development team for more information!

You can help OpenJAUS today! Just add a link to www.OpenJAUS.com on your company’s website, the more people that know about the project, the better it is for all of us!