New momentum for Project Aslan with software upgrades & new partners

International not-for-profit collaboration founded on a free and open-source self-driving platform confirms significant momentum in its first three months of operation:

> Completely re-structured code release to enhance community collaboration > Significant community growth with 24 independent developers and 12 organisations > First round of Technical Steering meetings in 2020 establish functional working groups, stack architecture principles, contribution guidelines and the ambition to set AV standards

Oxford, UK, 28 October 2020. Project ASLAN, the international not-for-profit collaboration established in July this year to accelerate self-driving solutions through open-source software, confirmed a significant advance of all aspects of its operation, including new code releases, new individual and organisational memberships and new protocols to advance the reach and relevance of the project’s work.

After three months of operation, the project will be staging a series of events and meetings commencing next month to release ASLAN 1.2.0, release its software architecture protocols, establish three working groups and host a global welcome event for contributors.

Mike Potts, the acting Chair of the Project ASLAN Advisory Board, said, “Project ASLAN has made huge strides since it was set up three months ago. We now have 12 organisations and 24 developers involved in the project from around the world, including commercial companies, research institutes and academia. Our second, much-improved software version is about to be released and we are commencing work in a number of exciting areas including cyber-security and AV safety protocols. In my view, the group is making good on its promise to extend the access to autonomous capability through a stable, powerful and free open-source platform specifically built for low-speed applications such as autonomous urban delivery services.” The new 1.2.0 software release is a fully re-written code base that will facilitate ease of contribution within a new, defined ruleset; the release updates to Ubuntu 18.04 and provides an enhanced software stack for contributors while maintaining the integrity of the code. Project ASLAN’s Advisory Board and Technical Steering Committee also confirmed the creation of three working groups focused on key functional areas of enquiry, including a software working group, a cyber-security working group and a safety working group. Other developments since July include the completion of software architecture procedures to address software validation, cyber-resilience and on-vehicle testing and the release of contributor protocols to ensure structured collaboration through feature requesting and bug fixing procedures.

Individual or corporate membership of Project ASLAN is free and open and the project welcomes new members and contributors.

About Project ASLAN Project ASLAN is an international, not-for-profit collaboration between technology companies, universities and public authorities that aims to accelerate the viability of low-speed autonomous transport solutions to improve quality of life and prosperity for citizens around the world For more information, please visit www.project-aslan.org Editor’s Notes - About ASLAN v1.2.0 > ROS Melodic version of Aslan for Ubuntu 18.04 at melodic branch > ROS Kinetic version of Aslan for Ubuntu 16.04 still maintained on master branch > Fully refactored code with re-design based on OOP (Object-Oriented Programming) and following the ROS Guidelines for package structure, C++ Style Guide, Python Style Guide, ROS Patterns and Common Procedures (the motivation behind this is to provide a set of guidelines that can help the contributors of Project ASLAN contribute in a neat, well-structured software stack) > The current version of the stack is fully restructured and concise facilitating debugging, understanding of the functionality and establishing a set of rules, procedures and guidelines in code development