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TORC, a provider of robotics technologies for unmanned and autonomous vehicles, has announced that an evaluation version of its JAUS Toolkit is now included with National Instruments’ LabVIEW Robotics software.
National Instruments released LabVIEW Robotics 2009 earlier this year, providing a development platform for designing robotic control systems. The JAUS Toolkit is available as an option during installation with the LabVIEW Robotics Module and LabVIEW Robotics Bundle.
With the congressional mandate that one-third of all military vehicles be unmanned by 2015, TORC is helping to prepare the robotics industry with a toolkit designed to simplify the development of JAUS (Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems) interoperable robotic systems. Given the problems of various proprietary systems being incompatible with each other, JAUS was set as the open messaging standard for communications between elements of unmanned systems.
Now, with the JAUS Toolkit, developers using LabVIEW can implement JAUS without having to develop complex coding. Capitalizing on the strengths of LabVIEW’s intuitive graphical programming environment, the JAUS Toolkit simplifies complex JAUS messages into drag-and-drop components, helping to lower costs and development risks with standards compliant JAUS code.
“As more organizations adopt the JAUS standard, they will be seeking more intuitive development tools that empower their engineers without the steep learning curve,” said Andrew Culhane, business development manager at TORC. “TORC’s JAUS Toolkit is the add-on that facilitates JAUS interoperable robotics development within the LabVIEW programming environment.”
TORC has pioneered the use of LabVIEW in developing JAUS interoperable unmanned systems, payloads and components. The company used an earlier version of the JAUS Toolkit as the lead software developer for DARPA Urban Challenge finalist Team VictorTango. Working with Virginia Tech, the team developed the only JAUS interoperable autonomous vehicle to successfully complete the race. It has since used versions of the JAUS Toolkit on numerous projects, from internal product development to deployments for government and commercial clients.
To learn more about LabVIEW Robotics 2009, visit http://www.ni.com/robotics. A 30-day evaluation version of the JAUS Toolkit is also available by request at http://www.jaustoolkit.com.
About TORC Technologies
TORC is a leading robotics engineering and product development company focusing on unmanned and autonomous vehicle systems. TORC commercializes intelligent robotic technologies into modular, interoperable, off-the-shelf products that enable customers to rapidly integrate and deploy unmanned solutions. To learn more, visit http://www.torctech.com.
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