pntOS FAQs

pntOS was designed for the DoD community and it is an ideal architecture for anyone building a PNT solution for any operational environment, regardless of privacy needs or programming language. Custom plugins can be developed using any programming language and can either be made available to the pntOS community or used for proprietary applications without risk of disclosure.

pntOS is a great solution for both operational and S&T applications. 

pntOS is not a specific piece of code, collection of plugins, or program but is rather a plugin architecture. This means pntOS defines the components and message formats that all pntOS implementations must follow via APIs. When someone uses pntOS to create a PNT sensor fusion application, they have created a pntOS implementation. An example of an implementation is Viper.  

Viper (sometimes referred to as Viper reference plugins) is the name of a specific implementation of the pntOS architecture. Viper is written in C and C++. 

NavToolkit (sometimes abbreviated to navtk) is a software library that contains navigation algorithms that are used in the implementation of Viper plugins. Anyone is free to develop plugins using their own internal software libraries.  

ASPN is a community-developed data standard that describes what PNT data may be exchanged for consistent usage and interoperability of PNT estimators across different systems, sources, and users. pntOS utilizes ASPN data standards wherever relevant.  

No, pntOS is not a true operating system. pntOS received its name due to the ways it is analogous to an OS, such as how it manages the basic functions in a PNT system and is a tool used for building systems. In this way pntOS is similar to ROS (Robot Operating System).