ROS in the cockpit

There’s a new DARPA-funded effort to develop software and hardware to assist pilots in various kinds of aircraft. The program is called ALIAS, for Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (apparently unrelated to that other Alias).

What does this have to do with OSRF? Well, we learned last week that, in advance of the full ALIAS program, DARPA funded a pilot project (so to speak), in which Moiré Incorporated demonstrated the kind of thing they’re imagining by retrofitting a King Air cockpit simulator with a stereo camera, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and a Kinova MICO robot arm. They showed how those sorts of tools could help by having the robot pitch in during a simulation of a very bad day for the plane, complete with engine fires and cabin depressurization.

And, naturally, Moiré built the whole system with ROS.

There’s a cool video demonstrating this system; it will be available after the ALIAS proposal period closes on July 14, 2014.

Open Source Robotics Foundation is an independent non-profit organization founded by members of the global robotics community.

Open Source Robotics Foundation is an independent non-profit organization founded by members of the global robotics community.