A software architecture for rapid development and deployment of sensor testbeds

Abstract

The research, design, and testing of chemical and biological (CB) detection systems can involve any number of different specialties. Whether fusing sensor data, statistically modeling physical processes, developing simulation software, or evaluating sensor technologies, researchers are aided by large repositories of data to accomplish and validate their work. In these cases, a sensor testbed can be deployed for long-term data collection to fill that need. Such data collection requires software that can run reliably for long periods of time, process and collect data coming from sensors (both CB and non-CB sensors in some testbeds), and monitor the status of the testbed components and infrastructure. If software doesn't already exist to collect and aggregate sensor data, the time and money spent on development and testing of this software detracts from actual data collection. To address the issue of rapidly developing software for long-term, data collection testbeds, the All-Purpose Interface for Testbed Environments (APITE) software architecture is introduced. The APITE architecture is a Python-based set of software tools designed to simplify and expedite the task of writing software for testbeds of sensors. The APITE architecture facilitates monitoring and maintenance alerts to maximize uptime, tiered or flat sensor collection, and triggered responses. These are all facilitated by the same underlying software mechanism. The underlying software mechanism, based on Finite State Automata, is intended to be largely transparent to the software developer. This paper will describe how the APITE architecture works, demonstrate its ease-of-use for researchers, and describe its potential use for critical infrastructure protection through tiered sensor collection and automated system responses.