The Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS) (formerly known as Joint Architecture for Unmanned Ground Systems (JAUGS)), was originally an initiative started in 1998 by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop an open architecture for the domain of unmanned systems. To ensure that the component architecture is applicable to the entire domain of current and future unmanned systems, it is built on five principles: vehicle platform independence, mission isolation, computer hardware independence, technology independence, and operator use independence.