NSF POSE project · open-source marine robotics

Toward an open-source ecosystem for marine robotics

Open Ocean Software is an NSF POSE project for open-source software in marine robotics: autonomous underwater and surface vehicles, moorings, drifters, and the sensors, data acquisition and simulation around them. We help existing projects with trust, discovery, interoperability and packaging, and we're growing the community through events and the forum.

Browse all member projects →
Yellow autonomous underwater vehicle at the surface with a tow cable attached to its nose
5member projects
114community interviews behind the plan
2projects you can apt install today: MOOS-IvP and DCCL
2community events in 2026

Member projects

The first member projects come from the team's own labs. Each one keeps its own home page. New projects join through peer review.

See the full directory →
Autonomy

MOOS-IvP

Open-source C++ modules for autonomy on marine vehicles, with the IvP Helm multi-objective decision engine.

C++MOOS apt package
Mike Benjamin, MIT
ROS 2

WHOI-ROS

Shared ROS 2 libraries and tools for underwater vehicle operations from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Successor to DS_ROS.

ROS 2
Isaac Vandor, WHOI
Acoustic comms

ros_acomms

ROS interface to the WHOI Micromodem and transport of ROS messages across an acoustic link, with simulation. Supports ROS 1 and ROS 2.

PythonROS 2Acoustic comms LGPL-3.0 / AGPL-3.0
Eric Gallimore, WHOI
Middleware and comms

Goby3

One framework for vehicle collaboration across acoustic and satellite links, interprocess, and interthread communications.

C++Acoustic comms OpenSSF Scorecard
Toby Schneider, GobySoft
Encoding

DCCL

Compact message marshalling for very low-throughput links such as acoustic modems and satellite.

C++Acoustic comms apt package OpenSSF Scorecard
Toby Schneider, GobySoft

Your project here

Maintain open-source software for marine robots? Tell us about it on the forum. Member projects get a page in this directory and, once they have tagged releases, signed Debian packages.

How to join →

What members get

Packaging, security and outreach are more than most small projects can run on their own. We run them once for every member project, and each project keeps its own code and roadmap.

  1. Trust

    Packages are built in a public pipeline and GPG-signed. Member repos on GitHub show their OpenSSF Scorecard.

  2. Discoverability

    One directory and one forum, so you can find the project and the person who maintains it.

  3. Interoperability

    We're working toward maintained bridges between ROS 2, MOOS-IvP, Goby and LCM. Today only Goby ↔ MOOS is production grade.

  4. Accessibility

    Binary packages, so you can apt install instead of building from source. MOOS-IvP and DCCL are ready now, and more projects follow as they're packaged.

Community

Latest on the forum

from forum.oceansoft.org
Open the forum News category →

Newsletter

An email for key events and project updates. Infrequent.

Survey · 8–10 min

ROS Maritime Community Pulse

Whether you use ROS, MOOS-IvP, Goby or something else, we want your input on tools, interoperability and community infrastructure.

Take the survey →

Events

Watch the forum for new dates →

Team

We maintain MOOS-IvP, Goby, DCCL, ros_acomms and WHOI-ROS, and between us have decades of field time on AUVs.

Meet the team →
  • Eric GallimorePI · ROS-Acomms
  • Toby Schneiderco-PI, team lead · Goby, DCCL
  • Hanu Singhco-PI · governance
  • Mike Benjaminco-PI, community · MOOS-IvP
  • Isaac Vandorcommunity · WHOI-ROS
  • Dave Fordindustry mentor
  • Dennis Giayaproject standards