Testbeds help move academic research prototypes and industrial partners’ early products into the field for system integration and testing by providing a glimpse of future mass markets three to five years before the markets themselves come into being. They are designed to allow researchers to “plug in” new algorithms and experimental devices to receive realistic feedback. Industrial partners gain first-hand experience with product prototypes and identify, early on, applications and services that their new products may enable. Policymakers, business management experts, cognitive scientists, artists, and educators study the effect of this technology on human interaction, expression and creativity, learning, and productivity. And students are challenged by this unusual environment to become, upon graduation, leaders of the next generation of research and development.

Four testbeds have been created for the purpose of evaluating RESCUE research.

Transportation:

The Transportation Testbed, led by ImageCat, simulates an evacuation activity in case of a large regional disaster (such as earthquake in LA area).  Online software called INLET has been developed that enables researchers to quantify the efficacy of various IT solutions by examining the impact on highway performance both with and without improved information technology.

CAMAS:

The UCI CAMAS testbed creates a campus level pervasive environment that supports a variety of networking and sensing capabilities. The pervasive infrastructure enables monitoring, instrumentation, and recording of campus level drills as well as testing technologies in that context. A multi-agent response activity simulator (DrillSim), fully integrated with the pervasive infrastructure has been built both as a training tool and a tool for what-if analysis. 

GLQ:

The GLQ testbed at San Diego serves as a living laboratory for deploying and testing variety of communication technologies such as hybrid wireless mesh network connected to the Internet over multiple long-haul point-to-point wireless links. The infrastructure offers not only crucial data on the pattern of user traffic over a wireless mesh network but also a wideband Internet access infrastructure to public and law enforcement agencies.

Champaign:

Finally, the Champaign, Illinois Testbed – a result of active participation of user community in RESCUE research – consists of a set of response organizations willing to serve as a testbed for deployment, testing, and validation of RESCUE research focusing on secure data sharing. It provides an opportunity to explore challenges and study the efficacy of IT research and solutions in a smaller-city setting.

Our ongoing discussions with multiple response organizations in LA, Orange, and San Diego County will provide additional opportunities to test technologies from multiple perspectives.