URML (open robot intent language): a validated natural-language teaching layer for the Open Source Rover — request for comment

[idoco2003]

Hi Open Source Rover community,

URML (urml.dev) is a small, Apache-2.0 language for describing robot intent: a learner writes "drive to the rock and take a photo", URML turns it into typed move_to / capture primitives, validates them against the rover's declared capability manifest and a safety envelope, then dispatches. The Open Source Rover is a wonderful platform for that loop, and the angle here is education.

Nothing here asks the project to adopt, host, or maintain anything. This is a request for comment.

The validation step is itself a teaching moment: the manifest makes "what can this robot do" explicit and inspectable, and a request outside it is refused with a clear reason. The loop is hermetic-first — URML's mock substrate runs the whole language -> validation -> execution pipeline with no hardware, so a classroom can use it before a physical rover exists, then point the same program at the real one.

Two real questions: (1) Is a validated natural-language intent layer interesting as a teaching add-on for the rover community? (2) What would make a URML manifest for the rover most useful in a classroom — a ready-made example manifest, a tutorial, a "one sentence drives the rover" community example?

Full write-up: https://github.com/URML-MARS/URML/blob/main/docs/rfcs/0394-jpl-open-source-rover-outreach.md

Thanks for the Open Source Rover; a build-it-yourself JPL rover in the open is one of the best on-ramps in robotics.

Ido Yahalomi (URML, greenvh@gmail.com)

AI-assisted prose, maintainer-reviewed before posting (see VIBE.md). Human-only correspondence available on request.