Hi,
I would ignore labview, its really doesn't save you a lot of time over writing actual code if you can program already.
I have used ROS / MRDS a fair bit in the past, and whilst both could be used for your problem, they each have quite a steep learning curve. Also distributed contract based programming is not as easy as plain C/C++.
The benefit of ROS/MRDS is that it makes collaboration easier, and allows you to publish your work as reusable modules. The other benefit is if someone has already released modules you can reuse (which might not be that much use for your application).
I remember seeing some publications on teams using both MRDS, and ROS for submarines, but I don't know if they published useful source.