OpenRVDAS

Overview

The Open Research Vessel Data Acquisition System (OpenRVDAS) is a software framework used for building custom data acquisition systems (DAS). OpenRVDAS target audiences are oceanographic research vessel operators and operators of other science-related platforms that have the need to record streaming data. OpenRVDAS is capable of reading data records from serial ports and network-aware sensors, optionally modifying those data records and streaming either the result to one or more destinations, including logfiles, network ports, databases, etc.

OpenRVDAS is designed to be modular and extensible, relying on simple composition of Readers, Transforms and Writers to achieve the needed datalogging functionality.

Motivation

The primary purpose of an oceanographic research vessel is to gather data from sensors. Oceanographic research vessels carry a combination of oceanographic, meteorological and other specialized sensors. Some of the more complex sensors (i.e. ADCP, Multibeam, imaging systems) include specialized data acquisition systems tailored to the particlular sensor. Many simpler sensors, however, can simply stream data values over a network port or serial connection.

At present there are limited options for operators wishing to store and display data from these simple sensors. This task is commonly referred to as underway data logging. Most research vessel operators rely on closed-source, solutions (i.e. SCS, WinFrog) or on dated datalogging systems (i.e. dsLog, LDS) for underway data logging. Both options provide limited support mechanisms, thus bugs are slow to be resolved and feature requests are slow to be implemented.

OpenRVDAS hopes to provide an alternative underway data logging solution that is defined, developed and maintained by the global oceanographic research community.

OpenRVDAS recognizes that each ship is different, that each ship has a unique set of sensors and that each ship has a unique way of operating. With this understanding, OpenRVDAS does not try provide a turn-key, one- size-fits-all solution but instead provides research vessel operators with a modular and extensible toolset for developing and deploying a custom underway datalogging solution tailored to the vessel's individual needs.

DISCLAIMER: THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE, INCLUDING INJURY, LOSS OF LIFE, PROPERTY, SANITY OR CREDIBILITY AMONG YOUR PEERS WHO WILL TELL YOU THAT YOU REALLY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER.

Documentation

Most OpenRVDAS documentation is gathered in the docs/ subdirectory of this project. We recommend beginning with OpenRVDAS Introduction and Overview, Introduction to Loggers and Controlling Loggers to get started.

Installation

OpenRVDAS is written primarily in Python 3.[^1] The installation script at utils/install_openrvdas.sh has been tested on CentOS 7 and 8, Ubuntu 18 and 20, Raspbian and MacOS, but it may also work on other systems. Please refer to INSTALL.md for details.

Ship/Organization-Dependent Code

Please see the local/README.md file for conventions on where and how to organize your institution's configuration and definition files.

Contributing

Please contact David Pablo Cohn (david dot cohn at gmail dot com) - to discuss opportunities for participating in code development.

License

This code is made available under the MIT license:

Copyright (c) 2017-2018 David Pablo Cohn

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Additional Licenses

Highcharts is a software library made available by http://www.highcharts.com under the Creative Commons (CC) Attribution-NonCommercial licence.

Several of the libraries are included here to support a demonstration of how Highcharts may be used to display OpenRVDAS data. Users of OpenRVDAS who wish to use Highcharts are responsible for ensuring that they have the proper licenses to use Highcharts in their installation. Please see the Highcharts Licensing FAQ for details.

Leaflet is a software library made available under the 2-clause BSD license:

Copyright (c) 2010-2018, Vladimir Agafonkin
Copyright (c) 2010-2011, CloudMade
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are
permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

   1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of
      conditions and the following disclaimer.

   2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list
      of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
      provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR
TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

[^1]: Recommended version of Python is 3.6 or higher, but most listener code has been verified to run on 3.5 and higher. Server code such as logger_manager.py may experience problems on 3.5 due to changes in the async module.