Rheinmetall open-sources the API for its connected weapon systems
German Rheinmetall open-sources its Battlesuite connected weapon system protcol
Rheinmetall has published the onboardapi 9.10.0 documentation under the EPL v2.0, opening the interface library and middleware that connects sensors and software in its Battlesuite weapon system. Built on the ddkit SDK and the OMG's Data Distribution Service (DDS), it offers a standardized data model, low-latency publish-subscribe messaging, and backward compatibility via DDS XTypes and XCDR2. The core is C++, with wrappers for Java, C#/.NET, and Python.
The onboardapi interface library and middleware is designed for seamless communication between sensor systems and software components.
- Stitch4223
“Hi Codex, please find attached website about the specification of my Battlesuit and use the documented API to create a plugin for Home Assistant that shows groups of sensor data.
You are only allowed to use commands that retrieve data, you are not allowed to perform actions on the suit.
Treat the suit like its API is not robust and in worse shape than a cheap toy: perform read calls slowly and sequentially with at least one minute in between.
If possible please group data in meaningful categories, just like the tank and radar dome.
My Home Assistant is the default on the local network, credentials are in credentials.txt.
Please send me a text when you’re done. Kthnxbye”
- ketzu
I wonder if someone just got super annoyed at having to ask legal to share their documentation with a cooperation partner for export control clearance, that they decided getting it open sourced would be less of a hassle.
Now they can freely link anyone to the document.
- alhirzel
Reminds me a lot of the Tactical Microgrid Standard (aka TMS aka MIL-STD-3071) [1], probably just because TMS uses DDS as well. I would really like to know if there is a protocol that functions like DDS but caters to real-time guarantees and prioritizes (at a "simple protocol" level) usability on embedded systems with no dynamic memory allocation. It would also need to be just-as-functional with non-real-time systems. One problem with DDS is that it is too heavy-handed to implement well on an embedded system.
- rayiner
Off-topic, but "Rheinmetall" is one of the coolest company names. It's like what a company that builds mechs would be called in an anime.
- teiferer
Oh boy, just what the world needs right now. Open source weapons APIs!
- j-pb
First I was excited, then I saw that it's based on DDS.
- molive
Sounds like the Land Data Model (LDM) of the Generic Vehicle Architecture (GVA) [1] that the UK MOD has. GVA is closed source however.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Vehicle_Architecture
- adinb
Are they trying to recreate DIS (IEEE1278) and HLA (IEEE1516) — like they‘re replicating the FOM architecture from distributed simulations for their weapons to integrate.