CLARAty

The CLARAty application is a software framework for robotic autonomy featuring a coupled layer architecture. Developed collaboratively by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Minnesota, its design was intended for heterogeneous robotic platforms while promoting reuse of software. It was created to integrate advanced robotic capabilities from various institutions, thus making its design portable, modular, flexible, and extendable.

The CLARAty infrastructure and several algorithms have been approved for public release with the aim of engaging the robotic community in advancing surface mobility and robotic control algorithms in demanding environments. The vision of CLARAty is to provide a flexible and reusable framework to support the development and integration of advanced robotic technologies under the Mars Technology Program and other NASA programs. Additionally, it promotes component and algorithm interoperability between heterogeneous robotic platforms.

The mission of CLARAty is to establish a working group of roboticists from NASA and partnering universities, capture requirements for robotic capabilities, and develop and document a flexible framework to support advanced technologies on multiple robots. Prototype proposed frameworks to display improved capability compared to legacy systems, and adapt to various robotic platforms while capturing lessons learned. Afterward, revise, enhance, and document the framework, disseminate it to the robotics community and engage for future improvements.