Why MOOS?

There are many reasons why MOOS is an excellent robotic control architecture. A sample of reasons:

• What is so great about MOOS?
• Why? Because it is cross-platform.
• Why? Because of the star architecture.
• Are there any downsides to MOOS?

What is so great about MOOS?

MOOS offers a cross-platform robotic control architecture that gives flexibility and growth potential to its users. The closest alternatives to MOOS include Microsoft Robotics Studio and OpenJAUS, each with their strengths and weaknesses. Each of these alternatives is free for download from their official sources, although there is a fee for commercial deployment of Robotics Studio applications. Your needs dictate which is best for you.

Why? Because it is cross-platform.

MOOS source code can be compiled on UNIX, Linux, Mac OS, and Windows systems. Robotics Studio is only Windows, and OpenJAUS is based in Linux but operates in Windows with Cygwin. The main benefit comes over the system development lifecycle. At SARA, we prefer to develop in Windows using Visual Studio. However, to increase performance on our embedded systems, our deployable systems may be switched to Linux.

Why? Because of the star architecture.

MOOS is a suite of concurrently running applications called a MOOS “community,” where each application has its own simple purpose. At the core of the community is an application called MOOSDb. A typical community might have an instance of MOOSDb and applications for Helm commands, reading a GPS, localization, controlling actuators, reading a digital compass, and so on. Any given application only has communications with the MOOSDb and is not aware of any other application. The star architecture’s allows for flexibility. Applications can be swapped in and out, portions can be simulated, and the community can be distributed among multiple computers.

The main strength of the star architecture is the ability to run without all applications in place, an advantage especially during system development. In contrast, peer-to-peer architectures such as Robotics Studio have applications talk to each other. If an application is missing, the system fails.

The main disadvantage to the star architecture is the high overhead of communications. MOOSDb uses standard IP protocols even between applications on the same machine. In addition, MOOS eschewed binary encoding for text based messages – which are human-readable – but lend to larger messages. In practice, this is a small disadvantage. Even in textual form, MOOS messages are smaller than one packet, and especially on a single computer IP communications are fast.

Are there downsides to MOOS?

Maybe... MOOS is based entirely on C++. For many, this alone is the barrier to adopting MOOS. In C++, rapid prototyping gives way to systematic object-oriented development. MOOS and IvPHelm concepts are complex in and of themselves, learning C++ in addition is a daunting task. Even just compiling the applications requires significant technical experience.

Luckily, SARA provides Windows XP .exe files for the main application components. By simply downloading these components, it is possible to run a MOOS community in simulation mode or on real hardware, provided you have the correct hardware. The only downside is that the executables cannot be modified.

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, military agencies, and private companies.

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