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42 MTR May 2011 The Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. (RIEDC), in conjunction with the City of Providence Emergency Management Agency (PEMA, pictured right), earlier this year hosted an in-water demonstra- tion of a real-time diver detec- tion and response system called UPSIDE at the PEMA Emergency Operations Center. The UPSIDE system is funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR), with works on science and technology programs for the US Navy, and is managed by the RIEDC with technical support from the following businesses and organizations: • Rite Solutions – Systems Integrator and Technical Manager • Purvis Systems – Incident Management and Distribution System • Smiths Detection – Digital Video Recorders • Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (ATHENA system) • SoneSys – Sonar • Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) – Independent Technical Advisors and demo support. The UPSIDE system is designed to be a real-time diver detection system that also classifies targets and delivers critical information to security forces to determine the response required to manage the threat. “Securing our port facilities and cargo is vital to the growth and stability of our economic infrastructure,” said Keith Stokes, RIEDC Executive Director. Rite Solutions served as the Systems Integrator and Technical Manager for the UPSIDE project, and as such was tasked with bringing together the many disparate piece of equipment – including video surveillance system, high frequency sonars, unmanned vehicles and first responders – and information, melding hardware and data into a cohesive unit designed to efficiently collect and dis- seminate information via its Rite View 3-D Command and Control maritime visuali- zation system. According to Dean Balcirak, System Test Engineer, the chal- lenge inherent but not unique to the UPSIDE project was bringing together products and systems from outside organiza- tions into a cohesive system. This was accomplished using an enterprise service bus as the backbone for the data and indi- vidual interface translation services, as well as the hands- on expertise from Rite Solutions in performing past com- mercial projects which required tying together a number of different products and systems. “This project was really a jumping off point for Rite Solutions,” said Rory Hanmer, Lead Software Engineer, “in the use of the enterprise service bus as the data back- bone. The hardest part – as always — is linking with other companies, products and systems; each interface has its own particular needs. We provided the conduit to get all of the data on to the enterprise service bus, and in turn to bring the data into the Command and Control System and ultimately, Rite View (TM).” The ability to test systems ‘on the workbench’ as opposed to in the water was invaluable, according to Balcirak. “In testing the system, we were linking to the unmanned vehicle system while it was on the test bench at URI,” he said. “We were able to test the equipment (including the sonar) before the equipment was in the water, so by the time we got into the water, we were 98% there on the equipment, allowing us to focus on getting good data instead of working out interface bugs. UPSIDE is currently in Phase 3, meaning that the tech- nology has been integrated and tested; proven as a unit during trial, and ready for market – as a unified system or as individual technologies – for commercial or govern- ment customers. According to Hanmer, there are no shortage of potential customers, ranging from port and harbor security, to addressing the multiple threats inher- Rhode Island — via UPSIDE — Takes the Lead on Subsea Security
