Ram_Car_SOW_(002).docx

Statement of Work

TITLE: Technical Services Contract for a 3D Model of a Joy BH20 Articulated Ram Car in Unity

I. BACKGROUND Decision Point Phased Schedule

The NIOSH Office of Mine Safety and Health Research (OMSHR) is developing a virtual mine that will be used to conduct experimental research related to mine safety and health. The intent is to use virtual environments to conduct “what-if” scenarios that are unsafe to investigate in actual mines. The platform for this virtual mine currently includes the Windows desktops, but eventually will include other immersive environments in NIOSH’s Virtual Immersion and Simulation Laboratory.

One application of this virtual environment relates to modeling proximity detection systems. Accidents related to mobile haulage equipment are one of the major causes of underground coal mining fatalities. These accidents involve miners being struck or pinned by the equipment. NIOSH is currently conducting research to develop guidelines for design and implementation of proximity warning systems for underground coal mine haulage equipment to help prevent these accidents. Factors being assessed include identifying the detection range and deceleration rates that are needed to prevent an accident while avoiding injury to the operator. Also important is evaluating the effectiveness of various types of in-cab warning systems.

To conduct this research, NIOSH needs accurate 3D models of actual haulage equipment currently used in U.S. underground coal mines. The models must also have accurately modeled lighting systems, since illumination and glare significantly affect visibility in the dark underground environment. Finally, the models must have realistic movement and mobility.

This contract will develop one of those models (for a Joy BH20 Articulated Ram Car). The contract will consist of three decision point phases, each of which adds additional capabilities to the model. Phase I is required, but NIOSH reserves the right to proceed or not to proceed, to phase II and III based on section II of the Statement of work. Vendors are asked to provide one quote with a phase total for each phase as seen below.

See the Statement Of Work in Section C for details.

SOW - Phase I

II. DECISION POINT PHASES

There are project continuation decision points prior to Phases II and III of the contract. If at the time of the decision point, the Government determines that it is advantageous for the Government to enter into the next contract phase, the Contracting Officer will authorize the Contractor to proceed. If, however, it is determined that it would not be advantageous to the Government to proceed into the next contract phase, the Contracting Officer shall notify the Contractor of such and modify the contract to consider the contract to be completed as of the current phase conclusion.

III. PURPOSE

The purpose of this work is to develop three level-of-detail (LOD) versions of a realistic and technically accurate 3D object model of a Joy BH20 articulated ram car. Two contract phases are specified to add realistic lighting and scripted motion (driving behavior) using the Unity game engine. These will be funded at the discretion of NIOSH.

This model will be used in a virtual coal mine being developed by NIOSH using Unity. The vendor will not be modeling proximity detection systems.

IIII. SCOPE OF WORK

The vendor will provide all labor, materials, facilities, hardware, and software required to complete the phases of this contract. The vendor will be required to participate in periodic meetings (including weekly progress meetings) and reviews as specified in this Statement of Work via Web conferencing, email and/or telephone calls (unless the contractor opts for in-person meetings at the Pittsburgh Research Laboratory). A final report individual section corresponding to each phase is required at the end each phase exercised.

The contract will consist of three Phases.

Phase I – Development of the 3D model (geometry and texturing)

Requirements

The vendor will develop three level-of-detail (LOD) versions of a realistic and technically accurate 3D object model of a Joy BH20 articulated ram car that NIOSH can integrate into its virtual reality-based underground room and pillar coal mine. Requirements are as follows:

General

· The vendor is responsible for obtaining engineering drawings and photos or other means to identify accurate dimensions, features, and details of the Joy BH20 ram car.

· The model must be designed using Autodesk 3DS Max software (version 2014 or higher).

· Substance Painter (version 2) and (optionally) Substance Designer (version 2) must be used to create physically based rendered (PBR) textures, potentially supplemented with editing in Photoshop.

· Instances of all 3 versions of the 3D model will be placed into a Unity (version 5+) scene to be delivered to NIOSH.

· The contractor shall use Unity’s new standard shader for material setup.

· Materials shall be named following a material-naming policy that will be supplied to the contractor.

Geometry

· Three LOD versions of the model will be developed by the vendor. Exact requirements (ex. polygon density) for each version can be determined during NIOSH-vendor discussions after contract award. However, the general specifications are:

· Low resolution –

· The same as the mesh collider (all surfaces modeled but no detail).

· Medium resolution –

· Major surfaces are modeled, but details such as levers in the operator compartment are replaced with textures.

· Full resolution –

· A full model based on the remaining specifications in this section.

· The model must be realistic, accurate, and to scale

· Important features must be modeled in detail as part of the 3D model. Less important features can be modeled as textures.

· Important features to be modeled accurately include (but are not limited to):

· Exterior dimensions (very important for collision detection)

· Wheel bases

· Interfaces

· Clearances around wheels

· Cab and entry dimensions

· Machine lights must be appropriately sized and placed

· Actuators

· Linkages

· Hydraulic hoses (if visible)

· All details on the machine that are over 1” in size

· In general, the quality being requested is the level of accuracy that can be obtained from engineering drawings (for dimensions of the vehicle) and photos and in-person measurements (for machine features that cannot be determined from engineering drawings)

· Moveable parts must be their own subcomponents/groupings and rigged for animation (not skinned mesh). This includes:

· The front portion of the ram car

· The back portion of the ram car

· Wheels (but not axles)

· Pistons

· Hydraulic hoses (only if visible externally)

· Controls in the operator cab (levers, etc.) will be modeled but will be non-functional.

· In general, non-critical components under 1” in size can be represented as textures.

· The main body of the vehicle (excluding wheels, etc.) shall be 4K resolution (the maximum in Substance Painter).

· Base materials shall be modifiable by NIOSH to show various levels of wear and tear.

· In general, the machine must be modeled accurately to accommodate the driving and articulation behavior specified in Phase III.

· Colliders

· Proper colliders are required that allow the machine to realistically react to collisions and tight quarters of an underground mine. This cannot be a box collider. It must be a mesh collider of sufficient density to accurately capture the exterior shape.

· All measurements must be in metric units

Texturing

· The model must have realistic texturing.

· The vendor will provide one texturing implementation showing a moderate level of machine wear and tear (NIOSH will provide representative photos as examples of what to provide)

· Texel density shall be relevant to the importance of each machine object

Phase Schedule

1. Kickoff meeting (1 day) - The contractor will meet by Web or phone with the NIOSH Project Officer for a one-day “kickoff” meeting to discuss specifications of the project prior to the start of actual work.

2. Contractor data collection - The contactor will obtain reference materials (engineering drawings or other sources) needed to design the Joy ram car model. The contractor will develop any additional documentation (machine measurements, sketches, detailed images, markup pictures, etc.) needed to convey the specifications they plan to use to develop the model. The contractor will also document which objects will be modeled as textures rather than 3D geometries. The contractor will provide this documentation to NIOSH.

3. NIOSH review of reference materials (5 days) - NIOSH will have 5 business days to review these materials to evaluate their acceptability. A Web or phone meeting will be held between NIOSH and the contractor to discuss any needed changes. If changes are needed, the contractor will revise the documentation appropriately and return the revisions to NIOSH.

4. Contractor geometry development with weekly NIOSH meetings - Once criteria are accepted, the contractor will proceed to develop the base model (all 3 versions, without textures). Weekly progress meetings will be held to ensure work is on target.

5. NIOSH review of geometry (3 days) - NIOSH will have 3 business days to review the completed geometry.

6. Contractor materials research - Concurrent with geometry development, the contractor will create/identify material files to be used to texture the machine. At any point, the contractor may provide these materials to NIOSH for review and approval.

7. NIOSH review of materials (3 days) - NIOSH will have 3 business days to review the texture materials.

8. Contractor texturing of model - Once the geometry is completed and NIOSH-approved and the materials are NIOSH-approved, the contractor may begin to apply textures to the model and create the final prefabs within Unity. The contractor will submit the deliverables for Phase I described in Section VI to NIOSH for review.

9. NIOSH review of Phase I deliverables (7 days) - NIOSH will have 7 business days to review the Phase I deliverables (textured models, draft final report, etc.) for acceptance.

10. Contractor revisions to final report – if necessary, the contractor will make NIOSH-recommended modifications to the draft final report and submit a final version.

11. NIOSH review of final report (3 days) – NIOSH will have 3 business days to review the final report for acceptance.

Deliverables All deliverables in accordance with section VI of the Statement of Work.

Phase II– Addition of machine illumination in Unity

Requirements

The goal of this phase is to implement machine lighting in Unity for the model developed in phase I. The lighting must behave realistically in NIOSH’s virtual coal mine (developed with the Unity game engine).

· Machine-based lighting shall be implemented in Unity (Version 5+)

· Illumination and glare/lens flare must behave realistically in NIOSH’s Unity virtual coal mine.

· Technical acceptability will be determined based on a review by a NIOSH subject matter expert.

· All Unity code shall be well-documented.

Schedule

1. Kickoff meeting (1/2 day) – If exercised, a meeting will be held to discuss illumination requirements for Phase II.

2. Weekly progress meetings will be held with NIOSH during this phase.

3. The contractor will investigate light sources and select a lighting approach.

4. NIOSH review (3 days) – the contractor will present its selected lighting approach and reference materials to NIOSH and obtain approval before starting development. NIOSH shall have 3 business days to review and approve the reference materials.

5. The contractor will apply lighting to the model in Unity.

6. Once lighting has been developed and validated, the contractor will submit the Phase II deliverables described in Section VI with draft final report to NIOSH for review.

7. NIOSH review of Phase II deliverables (5 days) - NIOSH will have 5 business days to review the Phase II deliverables (with draft final report) for acceptance.

8. Contractor revisions to Phase II draft report – if necessary, the contractor will make NIOSH-recommended modifications to the draft final report and submit a final version.

9. NIOSH review of Phase II final report (3 days) – NIOSH will have 3 business days to review the final report for acceptance.

Deliverables All deliverables in accordance with section VI of the Statement of Work.

Phase III– Addition of machine motion (driving) in Unity

Requirements

· Physics-based motion shall be implemented in Unity (version 5+)

· The contractor will develop scripts to implement the ability to “drive” the ram car via either an Xbox controller or a mouse/keyboard

· The vendor must show ram car articulation and movement, which includes

· Wheels moving

· Articulation behaving correctly; hinge points and jacks working properly

· Torque-based vehicle control

· Agreement with the specification sheet for the Joy BH20 (ex. turning radius, joint angle limits, speed, etc.).

· The equipment must respond properly to bumpy or uneven terrain.

· Must simulate vehicle suspension (shock and damping forces) and steering.

· Pistons must move appropriately when vehicle is turning.

· Must be able to move forward, turn corners within defined crosscut behavior, etc.

· If visible, hydraulic hoses must react realistically when the machine moves (based on images that NIOSH has obtained, however, the hoses appear to be contained and not visible).

· Note - steering appears to be at point of articulation.

· Technical acceptability will be determined based on a review by a NIOSH subject matter expert.

· All Unity code shall be well-documented.

Schedule

1. Kickoff meeting (1/2 day) - Assuming NIOSH determines to proceed this phase, a half-business-day meeting will be held to discuss machine motion requirements.

2. Weekly progress meetings will be held with NIOSH during this phase.

3. The contractor will investigate approaches for implementing machine motion

4. NIOSH review (3 days) – the contractor will present its selected machine motion approach and reference materials to NIOSH and obtain approval before starting development. NIOSH shall have 3 business days to review and approve the reference materials.

5. The contractor will develop and apply motion to the model in Unity.

6. Once motion has been developed and tested, the contractor will submit the Phase III deliverables described in Section VI (new Unity test scene, draft final report, etc.) to NIOSH for review.

7. NIOSH review of Phase III deliverables (5 days) - NIOSH will have 5 business days to review the Phase III deliverables (machine motion functionality, draft final report, etc.) for acceptance.

8. Contractor revisions to final report – if necessary, the contractor will make NIOSH-recommended modifications to the draft final report and submit a final version.

9. NIOSH review of final report (3 days) – NIOSH will have 3 business days to review the final report for acceptance.

Deliverables All deliverables in accordance with section VI of the Statement of Work.

Phase Final Report Instructions

Requirements

A reproducible final report is required to be delivered by the Vendor to the Project Officer/Contracting Officers Representative (COR) and the Contracting Officer via email. Each contract phase period shall be followed by a final report section deliverable.

· Final Report Section for Phase I - documentation and specifications for the 3D models (engineering drawings and other references used to develop the models, assumptions made, level of detail of the various components of the model, etc.), names of source files and material files, etc.

· Final Report Sections for Phase II and III (if applicable) - If phase II and III are exercised, the final report documentation shall also include any necessary information that a user or developer would need to know to use the illumination or machine motion features of the ram car in Unity. It shall also include all reference materials used to develop the illumination and machine lighting.

In all cases, this report should also document any suggestions for improvement to the model that the contractor may have encountered during this contract.

IV. GOVERNMENT FURNISHED MATERIALS AND ASSISTANCE

Government Provided Assistance

· NIOSH has on staff a Computer Engineer and a Graphics Designer with expertise in 3DS Max and Substance Designer/Painter who are available for reasonable technical consultation technical consultation via telephone for the duration of the contract.

· NIOSH also has on staff a Computer Scientist and a Mechanical Engineer with expertise in Unity who are also available for reasonable technical consultation via telephone for the duration of the contract.

Government Furnished Materials (to be provided after contract award)

· NIOSH’s internal standard for naming materials.

· A sample underground coal mine scene developed in Unity that includes:

· a network of interconnected pathways developed with a tile-based approach (straight paths, intersections, dead ends)

· Uneven terrain for testing motion and suspension (Phase III)

· Mine curtain hung in a path for testing that vehicle reacts realistically to collisions with objects (Phase III)

· Reference images for a “normal wear and tear” machine texture (for Phase I texturing).

· Reference videos showing shuttle cars moving through mine curtain (an example of how colliders should behave when machine moves through curtain in Phase 2).

V. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The duration of the Phase I is not to exceed 4 months from date of award. The duration of Phase II is not to exceed a total of 6 months from date of award. The duration of Phase III is not to exceed a total of 8 months from date of award. Thus, the maximum total period of performance inclusive of all Phases is 8 months from the date of award.

VI. DELIVERABLES

The contractor shall furnish the NIOSH Project Officer the following deliverables in the quantity indicated. The contractor is requested to specify delivery dates for these deliverables in its proposed contract timeline. All deliverables shall be submitted electronically.

Phase I

· All source files needed for NIOSH to further enhance the models in the future including:

· Original 3DS Max source files

· Substance Designer and/or Painter files

· Photoshop (pst) files

· A Unity scene containing instances of all 3 versions of the 3D model.

· All engineering drawings and source materials used to develop the geometry dimensions of the ram car (to be delivered to NIOSH prior to starting texturing, so that NIOSH can validate the accuracy of the geometry).

The resulting model and all source code shall be in the public domain. NIOSH must have rights to redistribute applications to the public that contain this model without cost.

These deliverables shall be submitted to the Project Officer in electronic form (email attachment, FTP, or CD/DVD format).

As Described Concurrent with Final Report Phase I Section Draft Version

Final Report Phase I Section

Draft Version - To be submitted to the Project Officer in electronic form, preferably as an email attachment.

· All engineering drawings and source materials used to develop the machine lighting.

The deliverables shall be submitted to the Project Officer in electronic form (email attachment, FTP, or CD/DVD format).

Final Report Phase II Section

· All engineering drawings and source materials used to develop the machine motion.

The deliverables shall be submitted to the Project Officer in electronic form (email attachment, FTP, or CD/DVD format).

Final Report Phase III Section

Draft Version - To be submitted to the Project Officer in electronic form, preferably as an email attachment.

VII. PROJECT OFFICER

Audrey F. Glowacki Computer Scientist Human Factors Branch

NIOSH/OMSHR

Phone: 412.386.4456 Email: afg5@cdc.gov

VIII. EVALUATION CRITERIA

This section explains the rationale and precise criteria by which proposals resulting from this solicitation will be evaluated. Proposers are not restricted as to what is presented in their proposals, as long as sufficient material is provided to allow evaluation of specific proposal elements defined below. Only proposals which meet the following criteria will be considered. Please submit, as may be necessary supporting documentation.The Government will then make an award based on lowest priced technically acceptabe offer.

Technical Evaluation

(1) Understanding the project goals, requirements and statement of work

The proposal demonstrates a clear understanding of the goals, requirements, and statement of work for this project and a clear understanding of the government’s specific requirements and capabilities needed for this simulation library.

(2) Qualification of personnel performing the work

The proposal provides staffing information indicating that personnel to be used are appropriate for the project requirement in the terms of education, knowledge and experience. The proposal identifies the Project Director and other Key Personnel, provides a detailed resume for each, and specifies the approximate number of hours that each individual will be assigned to the project. The proposal includes a brief narrative that explains the duties and responsibilities of all key staff, including direct technical supervisors, management supervisory and technical staff.

(3) Management Approach

The proposal contains an adequate management plan describing the proposer’s approach for management, including its on site management organization, supervisory responsibility, line of authority, assigned responsibilities, management of consultants and procedures for tracking project progress, risks, problems, project-related costs and time.

(4) Experience with similar projects

The proposal details examples of past or ongoing work performed by the proposer similar to that required for this project. The information provided demonstrates the ability to successfully design and develop highly detailed and technically/behaviorally accurate 3D models of equipment for engineering applications.