DRAGOMAN: Tools to exchange information between ROS 2 and space mission data formats

Upcoming missions to the Moon and deep space will require sophisticated software architectures that can support the growing autonomy needs on remote surfaces; such needs are expected to be handled by robotic assets in the absence of permanent human presence. As missions grow in complexity and scope, we can foresee that, rather than depending on a single robot, missions will rely on a variety of robot platforms that will work side by side, collaborating and complementing their technological capabilities to complete complex tasks that a single robot would be unable to realize. To achieve this, robots in space missions will need to leverage the latest technical advances on terrestrial operations. We posit that in order to facilitate the use of state-of-the-art robotic developments for space missions, robot researchers should have available a framework that allows them to develop new technology using their default backend (ROS), while providing them with tools that allow the integration of such ROS-based code with ground & flight mission software, which uses their own particular data exchange formats, such as XTCE - used by the popular YAMCS ground mission control framework - and FPP, the modeling language used by F’, and supported by JPL. In this project, named DRAGOMAN (Tools to exchange information between ROS 2 and space mission data formats ), TRACLabs proposes to implement a set of software tools that enables the exchange of data between the ROS software framework and two modeling languages that are fairly used in the space community, XTCE and F Prime (FPP) . Besides their extended use within the space community, we are proposing to create data exchanging tools for these 2 languages and ROS because both of the former are based on XML (FPP files can be converted to XML), so we expect that some of the conversion software tools will be common to both languages.

The proposed DRAGOMAN software would be applicable to a number of NASA center and projects that wish to integrate the advanced robotics capabilities of ROS2 developed by the robotics community with ground/flight software critical for mission and safety success. These projects include: 1. Gateway. 2. Artemis. 3. Lunar Surface Science Mobility System, and lunar operations involving software such as F' (CADRE, COLDArm). 4. Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS), 5. Efforts related to SpaceROS, and Mars rover systems. With the advent of so many commercial space missions, the DRAGOMAN software could also serve to enhance a number of non-NASA systems. Specifically, our tools could potentially help Blue Origin, Axiom, Astrobotic, Motiv Space Systems, Tethers, Honeybee Robotics, Intuitive Machines and any other company developing advanced robotic systems for space operations.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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