Component based open middleware architecture for autonomous navigation system

This paper introduces component based open middleware architecture implemented by ADD(Agency for Defense Development) to accommodate new technology evolution of unmanned autonomous system. The proposed open system architecture can be considered as a standard interface which defines the messages and operations between software components on application layer level, and its purpose is to ensure the portability of future technology onto multi-platforms as well as the inter-operability domains. In this architecture, the domain is defined as the space where several different robots are operated, and each robot is defined as a subsystem within the domain. Each subsystem, i.e., robot, is composed of several nodes, and then each node is composed of various components including node manager and communicator. The implemented middleware uses reference architecture from JAUS (Joint Architecture for Unmanned System) as a guidance. Among the key achievements of this research is the development of general node manager which makes it possible to easily accommodate a new interface or the new core technology developed on the application layer by providing a platform-independent communication interface between each subsystem and the components. This paper introduces reference architecture and middleware applied in XAV (eXperimental Autonomous Vehicle) developed in ADD. In addition, the performance of autonomous navigation and system design characteristics are briefly introduced.