3DCHESS: Decentralized, Distributed, Dynamic, and Context-aware Heterogeneous Sensor Systems

Repository containing tools related to NASA's 3DCHESS AIST project.

This application simulates a distributed sensor web Earth-Observation system described in the 3D-CHESS project which aims to demonstrate a new Earth observing strategy based on a context-aware Earth observing sensor web. This sensor web consists of a set of nodes with a knowledge base, heterogeneous sensors, edge computing, and autonomous decision-making capabilities. Context awareness is defined as the ability for the nodes to gather, exchange, and leverage contextual information (e.g., state of the Earth system, state and capabilities of itself and of other nodes in the network, and how those states relate to the dy- namic mission objectives) to improve decision making and planning. The current goal of the project is to demonstrate proof of concept by comparing the performance of a 3D- CHESS sensor web with that of status quo architectures in the context of a multi-sensor inland hydrologic and ecologic monitoring system.

Directory structure

├───docs (sphinx and other project-related documentation)
|   └───diagrams (figures used for documentation)
|       ├───architecture (simulation architecture diagrams)
|       └───sequence diagrams (simulation sequence)
├───scenarios (folder with the input and results files for simulations)
├───tests (unit tests)
└───chess3d (folder with main source code)
    ├───mission (mission objetive and requirement definitions)
    ├───nodes (`dmas` simulation nodes)
    └───agents (implementations for all agents)
        ├───science (science module files)
        └───planning (planning module files)
            ├───.backup (To be determined, temporary folder with old files)
            ├───centralized (centralied planning strategies)
            └───decentralized (decentralied planning strategies)
                └───conseunsus (consensus-based planners)

Installation

1. Install the dmas library and all of its dependencies is required for running these scenarios.

2. Install chess3d library.

make 

3. Optional: Confirm installation.

make runtest

Creating and Running a 3D-CHESS Simulation

See scenarios directory for further details. (NOTE: README might be outdated as of 10/20/25)

Acknowledgments

This work has been funded by grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) through the Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program.

Contact

Principal Investigator:

• Daniel Selva Valero - dselva@tamu.edu

Lead Developers:

• Alan Aguilar Jaramillo - aguilaraj15@tamu.edu
• Ben Gorr - bgorr@tamu.edu