2011 NASA Open Source Summit - Terry Fong

Open Source at NASAA practitioner’s perspective … Terry Fong Intelligent Robotics Group NASA Ames Research Center terry.fong@nasa.govirg.arc.nasa.gov Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 1

Why is Open Source good for NASA? More transparent •  Enables the public to better understand what software NASA needs to fulfill its mission & activities •  Enables the public to better understand how taxpayer dollars are being used More participatory •  Enables the public to assist in NASA software development •  Enables students, scientists, the general public, etc. to contribute their expertise and skills More collaborative •  Enables NASA to transfer technology efficiently and rapidly •  Enables NASA to more easily partner and work with others Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 2

IRG Open Source Software Vision GeoCam Workbench Vehicle RoverSW DetectionNeo Geography RAPID Toolkit Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 3

Vision Workbench (2006) Overview •  Modular, extensible, C++ computer vision framework •  Rapid development and flexible, multi-platform (Linux, OS-X, Win32) •  Supports science analysis, robot perception, image stitching, etc. Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 4

Vision Workbench (2006) Developers •  Government: NASA Ames Intelligent Systems Division •  Prime Contractor: QSS Group, Inc. •  University: Carnegie Mellon / Silicon Valley •  Non-Profit: Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science Key points •  Software library (continuous release / hosted on GitHub) •  Rapid, on-going development •  Supports numerous collaborations (funded & informal), interns, etc. •  Requires several external, open source libraries (OS licenses: Boost, MIT, BSD-like) •  Enhanced functionality with additional open source libraries (OS licenses: zlib/png, SGI, GPL2, etc.) Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 5

GeoCam (2007) Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 6

GeoCam (2007) Developers •  Government: NASA Ames Intelligent Systems Division •  University: Carnegie Mellon / Silicon Valley •  Internship program: Education Associates Key points •  Software suite: smartphone apps, Web UI’s, server software, tools (continuous release / hosted on GitHub) •  Rapid, on-going development •  Supports developers, first responders, citizen groups, etc. •  Requires several external, open source libraries (OS licenses: BSD, BSD-like, MIT, NOSA) •  Enhanced functionality with additional open source libraries (OS licenses: Apache 2, BSD-like, LGPL3, MIT) Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 7

Neo-Geography Toolkit (2009) Overview •  Tools for geospatial data processing, automated map making, etc. •  Supports large-scale data (10-100 TB), cloud & super computing •  Import / export to geo-browsers & OGC standards (Web services) Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 8

NGT for “Moon / Mars in Google Earth” Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 9

Neo-Geography Toolkit (2009) Developers •  Government: NASA Ames Intelligent Systems Division •  Prime Contractor: SGT, Inc. •  University: Carnegie Mellon / Silicon Valley •  Internship program: Education Associates Key points •  Software suite: libraries, processing pipelines & tools (continuous release / hosted on GitHub) •  Rapid, on-going development •  Supports numerous collaborations (funded & informal), interns, etc. •  Requires several external, open source libraries (OS licenses: Apache 2, BSD, GPL 3, ISIS 3, LGPL 2.1, MIT, NOSA) Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 10

RAPID (2009) Overview •  “Robot Application Programming Interface Delegate” •  Standardized programming interface (API) for robot software •  Messaging & data distribution for NASA robots & user interfaces RAPID RAPID RAPID API API RobotWorkbench Middleware Bridge Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 11

RAPID (2009) Developers •  Government: NASA Ames (Code TI) & Johnson (Code ER) •  Prime Contractor: SGT, Inc. •  Subcontractor: TRACLabs, Inc. •  Non-Profit: Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science Key points •  Software suite: libraries, user interface, reference implementation (hosted on SourceForge) •  Facilitates basic research & collaboration worldwide (does not require SUA / other agreement that would be extremely difficult to execute) •  De-facto NASA robotics open standard Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 12

RoverSW (2010) Overview •  Service-oriented robotics software architecture •  Designed for NASA-relevant research robots •  Software framework + composable modules Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 13

RoverSW on the K10 Planetary Rover VIDEO Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 14

RoverSW (2010) Developers •  Government: NASA Ames Intelligent Systems Division •  Prime Contractor: SGT, Inc. •  University: Carnegie Mellon / Silicon Valley •  Non-Profit: Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science Key points •  Software library •  Facilitates collaboration with others worldwide & interns •  Enables third-parties (e.g., small businesses) to test without SUA •  Requires several external, open source libraries (OS licenses: BSD, BSD-like, LGPL 2.1 & 3, MIT, NOSA) •  Enhanced functionality with additional open source libraries (OS licenses: BSD-like, NOSA) Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 15

NTL “Vehicle Detection” (2011) NASA Tournament Labs (NTL) •  Collaboration between NASA, Harvard Business School & TopCoder •  Crowd-source NASA software through programming contests •  Winning solutions will be released as NASA open source Vehicle Detection Challenge •  First contest: three-weeks (Jan 28-Feb 18, 2011) •  Automatically classify aerial images that contain a vehicle •  139 competitors from around the world http://community.topcoder.com/ntl Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 16

IRG Open Source Software Common characteristics •  Developed by multi-org workforce, not just civil servants ➯  Have to consider contract clauses & other concerns (Bahy-Dole rights) •  On-going, rapid development ➯  Intermittent point releases are not appropriate •  Intended to support & facilitate collaboration ➯  Must be easy to adopt (e.g., licensing should not get in the way !) ➯  Must be easy to access (e.g., hosted on popular sites, not NASA site !) •  Wide range of users (individuals, companies, non-profits, etc.) ➯  Barrier to entry must be as low as possible (licensing, access, paperwork) •  Built upon other open source libraries ➯  May restrict how software is released or what license is used Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 17

Open Source Release Process* * From a developer’s perspective Fill-out release forms Submit Release meeting Release approved   NF1679 (invention disclosure) release   SW briefingDEVELOPER   Software release request forms   Q&A   List of external libraries (and their licenses)   NPR 7150.2 matrix Month 1 2 3 4 5 •••AUTHORITYSOFTWARE Initial reviews Final reviews RELEASE   Export review   External library licenses   Collect copyright assignments   etc. Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 18

Lessons Learned: Potential Bottlenecks Copyright assignment •  Multi-org workforce: civil servants, contractors, interns, universities •  Can take long if non-NASA organizations unfamiliar with process Export control •  Can take long if software is difficult to categorize •  Can take long if software has possible ITAR characteristics External licenses •  Must carefully distinguish between "required" and "optional” •  Review can take long (no central database of reviewed licenses) 508 compliance •  NASA workforce (especially researchers) not trained for ensuring this SE compliance •  Open source software is not (usually) designed with this in mind (can be at odds with agile development methods …) Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 19

Towards Open Source Development What makes NASA different ? •  Taxpayer-funded federal institution •  Culture (engineering driven, minimize risk, etc.) •  Mixed workforce (civil servants, contractors, etc.) •  Unique, highly-specialized software •  Non-competition with commercial sector Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 20

Development Use Cases Point release •  Infrequent release of completed software (traditional model) •  Internal development by NASA workforce Continuous release •  On-going, frequent release of software under development •  Done only within well-defined bounds and with periodic review •  Internal development by NASA workforce Community development •  On-going, joint development to common code base •  NASA workforce (official duties) & volunteers Crowd-sourcing •  Rapid development at hackathons •  Result of programming contests (e.g., NASA Tournament Labs) •  May / may not have NASA workforce involved (official duties) Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 21

(Some) Issues How can we improve the NASA OS release process? •  How to make it faster & more efficient? •  How to make it more consistent across the agency? •  How to make it easier for practitioners? How can we improve licensing? •  Under what circumstances is NOSA (still) useful? •  What is needed for NASA to be able to use a suite of licenses (Apache 2, GPL 3, etc.) for release? How can NASA engage in community development? •  What is needed for third-party contributions? •  What is needed for crowd-sourcing? •  What can we do in the near-term? Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 22

Questions? Intelligent Robotics Group Intelligent Systems Division NASA Ames Research Center irg.arc.nasa.gov Open Source at NASA – A practitioner’s perspective 23

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2011 NASA Open Source Summit - Terry Fong

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