HLA interoperability for ROS-based autonomous systems

The requirements for autonomous systems (of systems) have started to include the cooperation between heterogeneous assets in order to accomplish complex missions. Therefore, interoperability – both at the conceptual and technical level – between different types of systems and domains is essential. In the M&S community HLA is the reference standard to design, develop and test interoperable systems of systems. In this article, a HLA-based link between simulation and an autonomous system using the ROS middleware is presented. The integration of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), more specifically the SPARUS II, in a HLA federation using the proposed link has been tested for a harbour protection mission. For this scenario, the hardware and software of the AUV has been included in a federation together with a virtual simulator. The link allows easy inclusion of ROS-based assets in HLA federations, thereby enriching both the M&S and robotic communities which will benefit from this approach which allows the development of more complex and realistic simulated scenarios with hardware- and software-in-the-loop.