SEEKSET

SEEKSET is an acronym for the Search, Exploration, Evaluation, and Knowledge Synthesis Environment for Sensing and Emerging Technologies. It is a modular, open-source software framework intended to help multidisciplinary teams design, prototype, simulate, and assess deployments of search, exploration, and sensing technologies across urban, environmental, and rescue contexts.

Origin and development: The SEEKSET project was proposed by a consortium of universities and research labs in 2015, with a public release of its core components in 2018. Version 2.0 introduced a standardized plugin architecture and a knowledge-graph backbone; version 3.0 extended simulation capabilities and cloud-scale orchestration, released in 2020-2022.

Architecture: SEEKSET comprises a data ingestion layer, a knowledge-graph database, an evaluation engine for experiments and metrics, a simulation module for digital twins, a visualization and dashboard UI, and a set of APIs and SDKs for plugins. It emphasizes interoperability through common data schemas, an event-driven architecture, and pluggable sensing modules (for UAVs, ground sensors, and literature sources).

Applications: It is used for research and development in environmental monitoring, search and rescue, urban planning, and defense-related exploration. Case studies describe rapid prototyping of sensor networks, decision-support dashboards, and policy simulations.

Governance: The project is distributed under an open-source license (MIT) with a community governance model that includes a steering committee, contributor guidelines, and a core module repository. Training materials and example datasets are maintained by the community.

Reception: SEEKSET has been recognized for enabling interoperable experiments and reproducible workflows, though critics note a steep learning curve and performance overhead for large-scale deployments. It remains active with ongoing development and multiple community forks.