Overview

BlueOS is a modular, robust, and efficient platform for managing a vehicle or robot from its onboard computer.

A bit of context...

The original Companion Software project (started in 2015) was originally created with the simple intent to route an underwater vehicle's video stream and communications to the surface computer, and provide some basic configuration of those features and the vehicle firmware. The simple scope was great to get things started, but also meant that new and complex features weren't designed in from the start, so maintenance and developing functionality became increasingly challenging.

With lessons learned on useful features and software architecture requirements, BlueOS was designed and created from the ground up to fit the requirements of the onboard computer system we want to have - with room to grow into a true operating system for the vehicle. BlueOS is modular to the heart, which makes it portable, robust to update, and extensible.

We're super excited about our future with BlueOS, and we can't wait for you to join us and try it out! 😄

BlueOS principles and goals

As the core development team we've tried to envision the future of the onboard computer, and the features that will require. Our initial ideas have been distilled into the following core concepts, many of which are already built in to the BlueOS of today:

• An interface that is simple by default but powerful when needed - the user has the power to change anything they desire and customize the full experience
• Designed to focus on what matters, improving user access to information and controls with a human-friendly UI and UX
• Make complex tasks simpler and improve ease of use by reusing design patterns from other applications (based on the material UI guidelines)
• Advanced error handling and detection, making any problems clear to the user and developers, along with how to fix them
• Simplify development, providing full access to our services API and modular development model
• Encourage contributions, the project is open source!
• Portable and flexible, you should be able to run on a Raspberry Pi 3/4 or any SBC with Linux operating system, contributions are welcomed
• Highly functional with low CPU usage, the entire system is built to run efficiently
• Developed on solid foundations, critical parts or intensive workforce services are designed using the most advanced languages and features available for stability

Some of these principles will only be evident in future releases, but the underlying software architecture and organization have been designed from the ground up to support and enable them.

What's New in BlueOS-1.2?

This covers a summary of the major changes and new features in BlueOS-1.2. Where applicable relevant features are also included in the feature comparison table. For detailed coverage of every change, please see the full release notes.

Bootstrap

• Resolves the issue where BlueOS would revert to its factor image
  • It is recommended to update bootstrap via the BlueOS Version once you have updated to BlueOS 1.2 (requires turning on Pirate Mode)

Extensions

• A standard folder for binding to the filesystem, accessible from the File Browser
• Support for custom SVG icons
• Support for disabling iframe embedding
• Development process documentation
• BlueOS-Community GitHub organisation, including
  • Open-source extension examples
  • A deployment action, for automatic building and upload of extension Docker images
  • Extension development quickstart/template repositories

Page improvements

• Extensions Manager
  • Added disk usage display for installed extensions
• File Browser
  • New shortcuts to useful parts of the file-system
  • Added support for Lua scripts for Navigator
• MAVLink Endpoints
  • Added MAVP2P as an alternative MAVLink routing option
• MAVLink Inspector
  • Added nice summaries of pressure messages
• Vehicle Setup
  • Improved sensor status indicators

Device/Hardware Support

• Improved development support for devices without a default pi user, and that should have some services disabled on startup
• Support added for the extended MAVLink MANUAL_CONTROL protocol, allowing supporting autopilot firmwares (e.g. ArduSub >= 4.1.2) to receive full 6DOF control and up to 32 button signals from a joystick

Feature Comparison

BlueOS has almost all features from the old Companion, and several hotly-requested new ones too!

Release Types

BlueOS has multiple release types, to allow choosing your preferred balance between access to the latest fixes and improvements, and stability of the software. The three release types are:

• Stable: Officially tested and validated
  • Stable versions with long term support
  • Recommended for most users
• Beta: Quick-passed rolling releases with new features, bug fixes and general improvements
  • Versions that will be released after an internal test
  • A taste of what's to come
• Master: Rapidly-passed bleeding edge development releases 🔥
  • The very latest features, that may not have been tested yet
  • Highly volatile, generally not recommended
  • For those who want to live in the future

When BlueOS is connected to the internet, a notification appears if a newer version of the same release or a stabler type is available. E.g: When using a Stable version, only new Stable versions will trigger a notification. If using a Beta release, newer Beta and Stable releases will trigger a notification. When running Master, any release type newer than the active one will trigger a new update notification. This helps to ensure that any updates will be as or more stable than your current version, unless you intentionally change to a less stable release type.

It's worth noting that the Version Chooser in general offers several major robustness and versatility improvements over the previous 'latest update only' approach, which should benefit both users and developers.

Quick links

1. Documentation
2. Source code
3. Releases, changelogs, files

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