Space ROS Project Committee Meeting Minutes 2023-03-16

We had a small Project Committee meeting yesterday with key representatives from space companies and NASA to discuss further the needs of the space industry and ROS 2.

Thank you @ezrabrooks for taking these notes!

Space ROS Project Committee Meeting Minutes

2023-03-16

  • Attendees
    • Dave Coleman, PickNik Robotics
    • Steven! Ragnarök, Open Robotics at Intrinsic
    • Michael Jeronimo, Intrinsic
    • Evan Laske, NASA JSC
    • Stephen Hart, TRACLabs
    • Austin Probe, Emergent Space Technologies
    • Ivan Perez, KBR / NASA Ames Research Center
    • Geoffrey Biggs, OSRF
    • Meera Towler, SwRI
    • Jerry Towler, SwRI
    • Sean Kolk, PickNik Robotics
    • Ezra Brooks, PickNik Robotics
    • Tyler Weaver, PickNik Robotics
    • Ian Ferguson, Lockheed Martin
    • Will Chambers, Peraton
    • Eddie Tunstel, Motiv Space Systems
    • Ama Oyake, Blue Origin
    • Krzysztof Walas, Poznan University of Technology, Poland
  • Preliminaries
  • Old business
  • New business
    • Identifying short term, medium term, and long term goals for the project
      • Short term & General Notes
        • Finish up the docs (Michael J)
        • Clean up, update the website (Michael J)
        • Better onboarding, good answers for “what is SpaceROS?” for everyone
          • Clarify that (today) SpaceROS is in the ROS2 upstream already!
        • Determine how to popularize and flight-certify existing useful ROS2 tooling in the space sector
        • Define near-term priorities for new work and upstreaming existing work (like memory allocator changes)
        • Clarify, document, inform about requirements management strategy
        • “Space ROS State of the Union” to bring the community up to date?
        • Upstream the foundational Space ROS work on better linting and testing of core ROS2 packages
        • Determine which NASA/ESA/etc. formal requirements Space ROS will adhere to (NPR 7150, ESA equivalents)
        • Develop roadmap for NASA/ESA requirements that elevate Space ROS from class-to-class? What is the road to Class A?
          • Documentation of best practices to get past V&V (compliance matrices, etc.)
        • Keep focusing on CI validation of quality and safety so that code quality stays high with less hands-on engineering effort to review and validate
        • Determine governance and contribution model
        • Attack key pain points in V&V like timing, coordinate systems, to help missions
        • Integration of NASA Ames’ testing and monitoring tools as part of CI process.
        • Determine how we will release a stamped and certified version of Space ROS that missions can adopt for the lifetime of their development
        • Circulating recommendations for qualification for 7150 among partners prior to potential publication as e.g., NASA TM.
        • Determine the line between “committee membership” and “contributorship” to maximize engineering contributions
      • Medium term
        • Backport requirements for new ROS2 packages back to older packages for higher quality and safety
        • CI support for hardware validation
        • Connect with the right groups for funding and engineering of innovative projects (like GCD) that may support Space ROS
      • Long term
        • Keep contributing upstream without forking
        • Fly it!
        • Have Space ROS run on Astrobee to gain flight heritage
    • Practical engineering and funding mechanism to make this committee result in real outcomes
  • Possible Topics for Next Meeting
    • State of the Union of the codebase / prior work done (maybe Michael J or Ama O)
    • Developing and sharing high level requirements
    • A NewACO/Space Act Agreement that is NASA + OSRF + Partners, to formalize or to create an umbrella organization.
    • Ref: “Long Term” - Always keep a “prospective mission” as part of this to help move the things forward (list of Candidate missions and plans for engagement)
    • Clarify difference between Space ROS and ROS 2. Still seems to be unclear to some folks. Perhaps can cover this as part of State of the Union.
7 Likes

Thank you to the interested parties for continuing vested interest in this important project!

1 Like

Hi,
May I ask how can I register for the future meetings? Is there a calendar invite somewhere, like at RTWG and other working groups?
Thanks,
Pablo.

1 Like

I am interested as well.

Thanks,

Jamie