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Telemachus

Open, Parquet-native pivot format for high-frequency telematics data.

PyPI Python DOI License: MIT (spec) / AGPL-3.0 (SDK)

Telemachus bridges the rigor of scientific kinematics (multi-rate GNSS+IMU at 10-100 Hz, accelerometer gravity frame tracking) and scalable fleet analytics (OBD, trip metadata, carrier state) in a single format -- instantly queryable in Pandas, Spark, DuckDB, or Athena.

pip install telemachus

Try the AEGIS demo notebook (open in Colab) to see the format in action on a real Open dataset in 5 minutes.

  • Quickstart

    Install, validate your first file, convert an Open dataset.

    Get started

  • Guide

    How-to articles for validating, reading, and converting data.

    Read the guide

  • Concepts

    Record format, AccPeriod, CarrierState, multi-rate, profiles.

    Learn the concepts

  • Specifications

    The normative spec -- 4 pillars, peer-reviewed, MIT.

    Browse SPECs

Why Telemachus?

  • Vendor-agnostic -- one schema for GNSS, IMU, OBD, I/O, CAN.
  • Profile-based -- core (GPS only), imu (+ accelerometer), full (+ gyroscope). Not one-size-fits-all.
  • Parquet-native -- flat columns, SI units, instantly queryable.
  • Reproducible -- every dataset ships with a normative manifest.yaml.
  • Open -- MIT-licensed schemas, reference adapters and Python tools.

Why not an existing standard?

Standard Raw IMU? Parquet? Fleet metadata? Gap
ROS bags (MCAP) Yes No (message stream) No Not columnar
Fleet APIs (Geotab, Samsara) No No (JSON REST) Yes No raw sensors
IoT (MQTT, SensorThings) Transport only No No Protocol, not format
GTFS / MDS No No Macro only Scheduling, not kinematics
Telemachus Yes Yes Yes --

Who is this for?

  • Data scientists & researchers

    Working on existing telematics logs. You want a consistent schema so your Pandas/DuckDB pipeline doesn't need rewriting per vendor.

  • Datalogger designers

    Building a device or firmware that produces logs. You want a target format accepted downstream -- with a validator and test suite.

At a glance

Artifact Version
Current spec v0.8 (2026-04-16) -- 4 SPEC pillars
Python SDK v0.8.0 -- read, validate, convert, introspect
Adapters AEGIS, PVS, STRIDE (Open datasets)

Telemachus is hosted as a single monorepo on GitHub.