The MOOS
MOOS: Mission Oriented Operating Suite

MOOS (pronounced “moose”) is a cross-platform suite of applications for operating autonomous vehicles. MOOS was developed to facilitate and support scientific research both on and about robot systems. MOOS has been adapted by multiple academic departments, government agencies, and private robotic developers.

MOOS was formalized in 2001 by its main author, Paul M. Newman of Oxford University (link). With help of students and researchers at Oxford and at MIT, MOOS has grown into a robust architecture. At SARA, we believe in MOOS and have standardized our robotic development on MOOS and IvPHelm.

SARA, MOOS, and IvPHelm

In comparison with other robotic control architectures, SARA has found the “star architecture” of MOOS to be flexible and suitable to our robotic endeavors. We have created and modified MOOS applications to support hardware and sensors beyond those that are provided in the official MOOS release, and we have improved the Windows implementations of multiple MOOS and IvPHelm components.

Ahab Underway

Our programming staff has embraced IvPHelm as the ideal solution for implementing a behavior-based system. The core IvPHelm libraries have provided the framework for development ad adaptation of new behaviors. SARA has successfully demonstrated marine “rules of the road” behaviors on real surface vessels, with a MOOS/IvPHelm based autonomous helm.

Ahab Autonomous Vessel

SARA is available for collaboration or for hire, to develop individual MOOS applications or to implement a complete system. SARA is a registered small business specializing in research and technology for advanced scientific topics. We have experience working with academic institutions, DoD, local governments, and private companies.

Contacting the SARA Robotics Venture

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