Glossary¶

This page lists common words / acronyms uses in MIL and robotics more generally. This should help get past some of our jargon.

alarms¶

Global Boolean state shared by many nodes, such as kill or autonomous

AUVSI¶

A non-profit organization which runs several competitions which MIL participates in

bag¶

A file which stores a set of ROS messages received over a certain interval. Used to collect data to later play back for testing / debugging

Drew Bagnell¶

An external USB hard-drive used to store bag files. Named after former member and legend Drew Bagnell, now CTO of Aurora Innovation

DVL¶

A Doppler velocity log. Is used primarily in underwater systems to measure the linear velocity of the robot.

Food train¶

An spontaneous event where people working in MIL go out somewhere to eat

kill¶

A global state indicating the the robot cannot move / actuate. This is largely a safety feature. The robot can usually be killed remotely

mission¶

The program that makes high level decision making to complete a given task. Sets waypoint using information from perception

NaviGator¶

An autonomous boat developed by MIL.

node¶

A program running on a robot. Usually performs a very specific purpose

perception¶

The program(s) which attempt to understand what is in the environment around a robot. Often uses cameras, lidar, radar, etc.

POE¶

Power-Over-Ethernet, a variety of protocols to provide power over an ethernet cable, so that the same cable can be used to both power and transmit data.

pose¶

A position (point in the world) and orientation (rotation in the world)

RobotX¶

The AUVSI-run competition which NaviGator competes in.

root¶

The administrator / superuser account on Linux. Has permission to do anything on the system
The top most directory or a project or the entire filesystem. For example, the root of the repository is installed to ~/catkin_ws/src/mil

Shuttle¶

A powerful computer in MIL used to run simulation tasks. Has been mostly replaced by Zobelisk

State Estimation¶

The process / program which determines where we are in the world. Usually fuses multiple sensors ( DVL , gps, imu) to produce an estimate of the robot’s pose

VRX¶

A competition named Virtual RobotX. Similar to RobotX, but no physical components or travel are involved.

waypoint¶

A new pose for the robot to attempt to get to

Zobelisk¶

A powerful computer in MIL used to run simulation tasks. Named after former member David Zobel