TOPICS: A modular software architecture for high-latency communication channels

This paper presents TOPICS, a production software architecture for communicating between unmanned maritime vehicles over high-latency channels, including acoustic and Iridium Short Burst Data (SBD) modems. The architecture is modular and extensible to facilitate development of mission-specific capabilities in addition to standard vehicle behaviors. TOPICS supports multiple redundant communication devices per vehicle, low-level modem abstraction for “backseat driver” applications, and file transfer when supported by the modem.