Standards can be a powerful thing. Standards in software can create quicker development, more extensible applications, and more robust systems. This is when the standards and the entity which controls the standards is effective.
Examples when "standards" don't work out, J2EE. This is an example of an overly complex, design by committee anti-pattern.
But, I thought this looked interesting.
Here is a portal http://www.openjaus.com/understanding-sae-jaus although all documents are for sale and not for open consumption.
But, they have a location at googlecode ! And SDKs are there ! https://code.google.com/p/openjaus/
WooHoo ! MRL is already a SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) .. now I'm wondering what it would take to pass the JAUS standard ?!?!?
Although I'm not particularly interested in supporting military system, DARPA a military entity has spawned many technologically advanced ideas which benefit civilians.