Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF OCTOBER 09, 2011 FBO #3606
MODIFICATION

A -- TACTICAL NIGHTTIME WIDE AREA SURVEILLANCE

Notice Date

10/7/2011
 

Notice Type

Modification/Amendment
 

NAICS

541712 — Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
 

Contracting Office

Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research, Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave. S.W., Washington, District of Columbia, 20375
 

ZIP Code

20375
 

Solicitation Number

BAA-N00173-5601
 

Point of Contact

Mary A. Johnson, Phone: 2027672021, Carol A Parnell, Phone: 202-767-2372
 

E-Mail Address

mary.johnson@nrl.navy.mil, carol.parnell@nrl.navy.mil
(mary.johnson@nrl.navy.mil, carol.parnell@nrl.navy.mil)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

The following Amendment is provided and replaces the previous version in it's entirety. Answers to questions have been incorporated in this new version. TACTICAL NIGHTTIME WIDE AREA SURVEILLANCE This BAA Topic is directed toward scientific study and experimentation for achievement of a prototype sensor capability that enables tactical nighttime wide field-of-view (FOV) persistent surveillance when deployed on a SHADOW Unmanned Aerial System. The desired sensor capability is intended to achieve surveillance of a wide area with adequate resolution to enable overall situational awareness of moving objects, including vehicles and personnel. It is also intended to achieve enhanced resolution in one or more selected sub-areas of the surveiled area for the purpose of classification and identification of targets and target details. Provided below are a number of parameters that identify desired capabilities for the prototype sensor deployed on a Shadow 200 UAS. I. Background The objective of this BAA Topic is to support a larger ONR program termed Wide Area Surgical and Persistent Surveillance (WASPS) Capabilities For Group 3/4 UAVs (EMW-FY12-03). The overall goal of the ONR Program is to achieve new sensor and sensor information fusion capabilities to improve battlefield awareness for the Marine Corps and its ability to maneuver and project power by addressing current shortfalls including: Fielded UAV borne imaging sensors with high resolution, wide field of view, are not nighttime capable Tactical units at the lowest echelon (team, squad, boat, patrol) now receive little or no timely moderate resolution imagery, which is useful for situational awareness, because they have very few or no organic ISR assets under their control Tactical units now receive no timely high resolution imagery useful for identification and/or remote inspection of dismounts The overall objective of the ONR Program will be accomplished, in part, using small, low cost, highly capable persistent surveillance sensors mounted in Tier II or Tier III class Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) combined with decision support tools to expose enemy networks and vulnerabilities. The effort described herein seeks development of a tactical, nighttime, wide field-of-view (FOV) persistent surveillance sensor with the following desired capabilities: (1) adequate resolution to enable overall situational awareness of moving objects, including personnel and vehicles; (2) the ability to zoom in and achieve enhanced resolution imagery over selected regions of the image for the purpose of classification and identification of targets and target details; (3) the ability to perform appropriate pointing and stabilization actions, as well as any needed optical functions for narrow field-of-view; and, (4) the ability to perform the first three capabilities within the size, weight, and power (SWaP) parameters for deployment on a Shadow 200 UAS. A more detailed discussion of the desired capabilities for the sensor will be presented below in the Program Design and Performance Goals section of this BAA. It is understood that there are a number of difficult research challenges in the pursuit of the desired sensor capabilities. These challenges include that: (1) the sensor may require some mechanical systems; (2) the choice of a visible sensor or an IR sensor, or both, for the narrow field-of-view portion may require a number of tradeoffs concerning the system SWaP; and, (3) in addition to the desired sensor system, other processing and communication resources must be included in the final, combined, actionable intelligence payload on the UAS. This BAA Topic contemplates a 4-year research and development activity directed toward achieving a prototype sensor with the desired capabilities described herein. It is anticipated that the program will consist of four phases: a base concept refinement phase (6 months) ending in a Preliminary Design Review; a second phase for detailed system design; a third phase for prototype fabrication and physical integration; and, a fourth six-month phase for electrical and software integration and testing. The phase for electrical and software integration and testing will be conducted jointly with the government at government or civil airport facilities in the greater Washington D.C. area using either a Shadow or a surrogate aircraft depending on availability. The offeror will work with the government to integrate the sensor with the payload and aircraft. The offeror will support the government led integration and test effort. Offerors will be expected to propose delivery of a fully integrated and working prototype sensor that meets the Desired Design and Performance Capabilities discussed below within the available period of performance and proposed cost. II. Desired Design and Performance Capabilities This BAA Topic seeks research and development for an MWIR nighttime persistent surveillance sensor payload for center-line installation on a Shadow 200 UAS, flying at a nominal altitude of 12 kft above ground level (AGL). In the target persistent surveillance scenario, the sensor repeatedly images a wide field of view (WFOV) (~4 km diameter) ground area to produce imagery with a GRD of at least 0.7 m and an effective rate of 2 Hz or higher. If the approach uses super-resolution with a staring 8k x 8k array, then the ground sampled distance (GSD) goal is 0.5 m at 8 Hz or higher rate and the sensor should have the capability to permit super-resolution processing. The sensor must be capable of providing up to ten user selected video streams (640 x 480 pixels) with a GRD of at least 0.7 m at 8 Hz or higher and located within the WFOV. The sensor must provide at least one narrow field-of-view (NFOV) 640 x 480 pixel video stream of a substantially better spatial resolution (Goal: 0.12 m GSD) to support remote inspection of dismounts within the WFOV. In view of the tight 0.12 m GSD goal, concepts based on shorter wavelength sensing will be considered for the 0.12 m stream(s), including the use of active illumination at night. Achievement of the desired capabilities using a multi-axis gimbal hosting large wide field of view optics and a large format MWIR camera is relatively straightforward. However, the size, weight and power (SWaP) constraints characteristic of a small Shadow 200 UAV are expected to require innovations in any viable developmental approach for this program. The program described by this BAA will develop and produce a lightweight capability that functions similarly to a two axis stabilized pointing system that will host the components described above on the Shadow centerline. Stability of the line-of-sight (LOS) is a stressing requirement for a small UAV payload. Roll stabilization / pointing may require a mechanical approach consistent with +/- 15 degrees of travel in both axes to correct for aircraft roll, pitch, and yaw. Shadow 200 platform roll/pitch/yaw and vibrational environment data is evolving and will be further developed during the program. The initial acceleration and vibration data for the Shadow are as follows: In the standard persistent surveillance scenario, a series of acquire image commands will come in from an onboard sensor management system (SMS) at an appropriate rate. During the exposure, the LOS jitter goal is less than 0.05 mrad rms. For the purposes of this document, jitter is defined as random angular excursions at high frequencies (100 Hz and higher). In addition to the jitter goal, there is a low frequency drift goal of less than 5 mrad/sec. These goals are predicated on a nominal 3 msec image exposure time. These jitter and drift goals, together with a residual image distortion goal, impose a derived goal on the precision and accuracy of the "on-bench" IMU. If a scanning or step/stare approach is considered, a more stringent derived goal is expected to be imposed on the data rate from the IMU so that the above image quality goals can be met. In any case, the minimum IMU data rate goal is 100 Hz. The residual image distortion goal is to be compatible with processing multiple frames of imagery and is desired to less than one-fifth of a pixel. In addition to the LOS stabilization goals, when imaging ground (not open water) target areas, the pointing system should be capable of repeatedly pointing the center of the field of view to the same point on the ground with precision (not accuracy) of 1.5 m over time intervals of order 100 sec. Specific SWaP goals for the sensor payload are: 40 pounds weight, and 200 watts peak power. The size/volume goal is to be compatible with centerline mounting on the Shadow UAV. There is more flexibility with the power goal than with the others. These goals are intended to be consistent with a ~ 10 pound sensor management system (SMS) of 90 cubic inches co-located in the UAV centerline payload space onboard the UAV platform. Existing platform GPS and navigational systems are exclusive of this SWaP budget, however, their output data streams may be available to the proposed payload. If proposed, any high quality inertial measurement system (IMS) on the optical bench must be accommodated within the SWAP budget. A significant part of this program will be the integration and testing of the camera and optics with the pointing and stabilization component. The goals for the integrated equipment are as stated below: Two axis stabilization with +/- 15 degrees of travel in both axes Jitter < 0.05 mrad rms Drift < 5 mrad /sec Center point held to precision of 1.5 m (100 sec time frame) Compatible with centerline mounting on Shadow. Supports super-resolution or alternate sampling approaches to achieve GRD = 0.7 m Compatible with georegistration processing to achieve rms residual image distortion less than 0.07 m The total weight goal for the integrated payload, except for the SMS and associated processing components, is 40 lbs. Modular design and clear definition of interfaces are also design goals for this program. Certain image processing steps necessary in achieving the image quality, GRD and geo-registration goals may ultimately be executed in the SMS and/or ground station. These include bad pixel compensation, non-uniformity compensation, relative calibration, image formation/formatting, super resolution, data compression, tagging with metrology data, and georegistration. The later operation, to be hosted in the ground station, is critical to achieving the residual image distortion goal. Georegistration performance will be limited by the quality of the metrology data and the details of the image formation scheme. While the SMS and ground station are not covered under this BAA, some of the top level goals (including GRD and residual distortion) depend on operations that will ultimately be hosted there. Consequently, the development work sought under this BAA must include a processing approach and developmental hardware for implementation of the processing steps mentioned in this paragraph. In the course of the work, raw data from the sensor proper will be processed with the developmental hardware to produce corrected, calibrated, georegistered images. These processed images will be evaluated against the goals described above. NRL may elect to rehost some or all of the image processing steps in an SMS payload. The software, hardware and data rights associated with this work must make such rehosting possible. The interface between the sensor payload and the SMS co-payload is expected to be based on commands using a standard format, such as XML, and a standard for data format over optical fiber. Data will flow to the SMS in uncompressed form (two bytes per datum) at the rate of 8 full frames per second or higher. The development of the SMS will occur in parallel with the work of this BAA, but is not covered under this BAA. Coordination will be accomplished through technical interchange meetings. Consequently, it will be necessary to design and build a sensor software simulation under this BAA so that smooth sensor / SMS integration can be efficiently accomplished. It is anticipated that the government will undertake the airborne test of the prototype hardware that is developed, fabricated and delivered in this effort. A limited amount of support from the organization performing the work of this BAA will be required as part of this project to interface the sensor with the government supplied aircraft, control, data acquisition and dissemination systems. The fleet of Shadow UAV platforms may not be dedicated exclusively to the persistent surveillance mission. A secondary goal is that the sensor payload will be capable of being removed and replaced with standard a POP-300 ball in less than 1 hour. Desired Sensor Capabilities : WFOV video: 0.7mGRD from 12k' AGL and 2 Hz, 4 km diameter area Ten Windows (640 x 480 pixel) of video within WFOF: 0.7 mGRD and 8 Hz At least one Narrow FOV video (640 x 480 pixel): GSD 0.12 m at 8 Hz Pointing repeatability 1.5 m NEDT < 70 mK <1 hr swap time of gimbal hardware and replacement with Pop-300 ball In order to support achieving GRD = 0.7 m via super resolution, the optics MTF goal is: MTF>0.4 at 4 cy/mrad and MTF >0.1 at 8 cy/mrad. This is a derived goal based on use of multiple frames in super resolution processing. If an offeror proposes an optical design achieving GRD=0.7 m at a native frame rate of 8 Hz without super resolution, that offeror's MTF goal is that needed to achieve the stated GRD. The low frequency line-of-sight drift and the optics are desired to support residual image distortion less than one fifth of a pixel.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DON/ONR/N00173/BAA-N00173-5601/listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Avenue SW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20375-5320, United States

Zip Code: 20375-5320
 

Record

SN02604481-W 20111009/111007234239-7c56adc7163f7e78dddf6ebbcbead4ac (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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