IoBT-MAX: a Multimodal Analytics eXperimentation Testbed for IoBT Research

Abstract

This paper describes the development and implementation of IoBT-MAX, a multimodal analytics experimentation testbed designed to support research and evaluation of Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT) technologies. The testbed consists of a distributed set of edge nodes with multimodal sensing and compute capabilities coupled with a high-precision GPS localization system, and a remote monitoring and control platform. The testbed is designed to support research on multiple analytic tasks including object classification, object detection, multi-object tracking, data compression, and communication efficient inference and scheduling. The testbed has been deployed at the Robotics Research Collaboration Campus (R2C2), a DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) facility, and is a key research instrumentation project of ARL’s Internet of Battlefield Things Collaborative Research Alliance.