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\section{Overview of the MOOS-IvP Autonomy Project}
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\wikisec{grp=moosivp,file=MOOSIvPIntroduction,short=Introduction}
\label{sec_moosivp_overview}

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\subsection{Brief Background of MOOS-IvP}
\index{MOOS!Background}

MOOS was written by Paul Newman in 2001 to support operations with
autonomous marine vehicles in the MIT Ocean Engineering and the MIT
Sea Grant programs. At the time Newman was a post-doc working with
John Leonard and has since joined the faculty of the Mobile Robotics
Group at Oxford University. MOOS continues to be developed and
maintained by Newman at Oxford and the most current version can be
found at \urlx{themoos.org}. The MOOS software available in the
MOOS-IvP project includes a snapshot of the MOOS code distributed from
Oxford.  The IvP Helm was developed in 2004 for autonomous control on
unmanned marine surface craft, and later underwater platforms. It was
written by Mike Benjamin as a post-doc working with John Leonard, and
as a research scientist for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in
Newport Rhode Island. The IvP Helm is a single MOOS process that uses
multi-objective optimization to implement behavior coordination.

\subsubsection*{Acronyms}
\index{MOOS!Acronym}
MOOS stands for "Mission Oriented Operating Suite" and its original
use was for the Bluefin Odyssey III vehicle owned by MIT.  IvP stands
for "Interval Programming" which is a mathematical programming model
for multi-objective optimization. In the IvP model each objective
function is a piecewise linear construct where each piece is an {\em
  interval} in N-Space.  The IvP model and algorithms are included in
the IvP Helm software as the method for representing and reconciling
the output of helm behaviors. The term interval programming was
inspired by the mathematical programming models of linear programming
(LP) and integer programming (IP).  The pseudo-acronym IvP was chosen
simply in this spirit and to avoid acronym clashing.

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\subsection{Sponsors of MOOS-IvP}
\index{MOOS!Sponsors}

Original development of MOOS and IvP were more or less infrastructure
by-products of other sponsored research in (mostly marine) robotics.
Those sponsors were primarily The Office of Naval Research (ONR), as
well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
MOOS and IvP are currently funded by Code 311 at ONR, Dr. Don Wagner
and Dr. Behzad Kamgar-Parsi. Testing and development of course work at
MIT is further supported by Battelle, Mr. Mike Mellott. The Battelle
sponsorship has been very instrumental in the development of the
documentation and online course material. MOOS is additionally
supported in the U.K. by EPSRC.  Early development of IvP benefited
from the support of the In-house Laboratory Independent Research
(ILIR) program at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport RI. The
ILIR program is funded by ONR.

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%\subsubsection*{Extending the Software}

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\subsection{Where to Get Further Information}
\label{further_info}

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\subsubsection{Websites and Email Lists}

There are two web sites - the MOOS web site maintained by Oxford 
University, and the MOOS-IvP web site maintained by MIT. At the
time of this writing they are at the following URLs:

\vspace{0.1in}
\begin{packed_itemize}[0]
\item \urlx{www.themoos.org}
\item \urlx{www.moos-ivp.org}
\end{packed_itemize}

\vspace{0.15in} 
\noindent
What is the difference in content between the two web sites?  As
discussed previously, MOOS-IvP, as a set of software, refers to the
software maintained and distributed from Oxford {\em plus} additional
MOOS applications including the IvP Helm and library of behaviors.
The software bundle released at moos-ivp.org does include the MOOS
software from Oxford - usually a particular released version.  For the
absolute latest in the core MOOS software and documentation on Oxford
MOOS modules, the Oxford web site is your source. For the latest on the
core IvP Helm, behaviors, and MOOS tools distributed by MIT, the
moos-ivp.org web site is the source.

\pskip

There are two mailing lists open to the public. The first list is for
MOOS users, and the second is for MOOS-IvP users. If the topic is
related to one of the MOOS modules distributed from the Oxford web
site, the proper email list is the "moosusers" mailing list. You can
join the "moosusers" mailing list at the following URL:

\vspace{0.1in}
\noindent
\urlx{https://lists.csail.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/moosusers}
\vspace{0.1in}

\noindent 
For topics related to the IvP Helm or modules distributed on the
moos-ivp.org web site that are not part of the Oxford MOOS distribution
(see the software page on moos-ivp.org for help in drawing the
distinction), the "moosivp" mailing list is appropriate. You can join
the "moosivp" mailing list at the following URL:

\vspace{0.1in}
\noindent
\urlx{https://lists.csail.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/moosivp}

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\subsubsection{Documentation}
\index{MOOS!Documentation}

Documentation on MOOS can be found on the MOOS web site:

\vspace{0.1in}
\noindent
\urlx{www.themoos.org}

\vspace{0.1in}
\noindent
This includes documentation on the MOOS architecture, programming new
MOOS applications as well as documentation on several bread-and-butter
applications such as \var{pAntler}, \var{pLogger}, \var{uMS},
\var{pShare}, \var{iRemote}, \var{iMatlab}, \var{pScheduler} and
more. Documentation on the IvP Helm, behaviors and autonomy related
MOOS applications not from Oxford can be found on the \urlx{www.moos-ivp.org}
web site under the Documentation link. 

%\input{other_docs}

%\input{whats_new}
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