Attachment J.3.3 TASK ORDER NO. 3 - 9-4.docx

ATTACHMENT J.3.3

Performance Work Statement Longitudinal Study of Commercial Motor Vehicle Intelligent Tires – Phase 2

Overview

The purpose of this request is to award one new cost-plus fixed fee (CPFF) order on the Research and Technology IDIQ for the project “Longitudinal Tire Study Phase 2.”

Background Commercial Motor Vehicle tire failures are commonplace, and an accepted paradigm in the United States. This research seeks to shift the paradigm away from the acceptance of tire failures by gathering tire use and failure data using emerging technologies. With the emergence of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) intelligent tires, the opportunity to study CMV tire use (and abuse), live, over time (longitudinally) presents itself.

During CMV inspections, a snapshot of the current tire condition is observed. Conversely, this study will provide live data collection of tire pressure, temperature, and load throughout the research. The data collected will be the equivalent of “naturalistic driving behavior” data, but specific to CMV tire use. This will be the first time a comprehensive understanding of typical tire use can be obtained over an extended period. In addition, new tires will be directly compared with retreaded tires.

Phase 1 of the project established the research structure and identified the vendors and trucking companies that would participate in this phase. If a different contractor takes over phase 2, there will be a transitionary task in both phases to enable a graceful transition of knowledge, documentation, and ideas to the new contractor.

Overall Project Goals (Phases 1 & 2)

The project aims to collect and analyze tire use data from intelligent/smart tires on commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) to identify typical use patterns of tires over an extended period (e.g., 2 years). The project goal is also to compare the life of new tires to retreaded tires. In addition, the project should evaluate the dynamic distribution of weight across all vehicle tires and compare tire handling of weight through various conditions (e.g., low temperature, low-pressure start of the day, high temperature, high-pressure start of day, a single tire failure among eight tires in a collection on the power unit and/or trailer, driving highway vs. driving city).

Research Questions (Phases 1 & 2)

1. How does the overall weight of the vehicle shift under driving conditions and various load distributions?

a. Do some tires exceed weight ratings under certain dynamic conditions?

i. Does this damage the tire?

b. Can the intelligent/smart tire sense an imbalanced load?

c. Can the intelligent/smart tire sense vehicle stability (e.g., equal weight distribution across all tires, imbalanced loads)?

2. How does ambient temperature affect tires under very hot or very cold conditions?

a. When a truck sits during periods of time (8 hours+) in extreme temperatures (hot or cold), what is the normalization pattern of tire temperature and pressure when the vehicle is put back in use?

b. How is the management of tire pressure different in extreme environments?

3. Under various operational behaviors, what is the “life of a tire?”

a. How often does a tire run under low pressure?

b. How often does a tire run under excessive weight?

4. What is the “life of a set of tires” on:

a. The drive axels of a power unit

i. Overweight loads

ii. Improper inflation

b. The trailer

i. Overweight loads

ii. Improper inflation

5. How does an improperly inflated tire affect the adjacent dual tire?

6. How does an improperly inflated tire affect the seven adjacent tires on the same power unit or trailer?

7. What is the likelihood of a tire failure on a new tire versus a retreaded tire?

8. Are retreaded tires more likely to fail under conditions outside of a tire's ratings (load, temperature, air pressure)?

9. Are retreaded tires more likely to delaminate the tread under similar conditions?

10. How can this data be used by other researchers to understand tire life in wear models and tire research?

General Requirements & Expectations

1. The contractor will be expected to utilize the supplier of intelligent/smart tires identified in phase 1 and establish a business agreement for the research period. The intelligent tire sensor must have, as a minimum, tire temperature, inflation air pressure, and a measure of strain possible to indicate weight. For the most part, the study should limit the number of tire sizes to not more than four during the study to reduce variability and increase the speed of tire analysis at the end of the test period. The study is not intended to evaluate tire manufacturers or retreaders.

2. Obtaining retreaded tires represents a significant risk and can induce a large variability in the research. If retreaded tires are available for purchase, this is the recommended path. To reduce variability, the tires selected should be on their first retread (finished life as a new tire and exiting the first retread) and of the same brand and retreaded in the same tire retreading facility. Retread tires may also be owned by a fleet and retreaded under contract. The contractor will be expected to utilize fleets identified in Phase 1 and establish agreements for participation in the research. Fleets that participate will receive tires, free of charge, during the research data-gathering period. The contractor shall be responsible for installing, maintaining, and remounting the previous tires (if available).

3. The contractor should conduct trials before deploying the selected or developed system to ensure that the overall system resiliency is adequate for the full period of study. FMCSA owns several Class 8 trucks that may be used for these trials.

4. The contractor shall use the fleets identified in phase 1 (not greater than nine companies) to participate in the study. However, companies already adopting intelligent tires should not be included in the study. The intent is not to share data with the fleets or drivers during the study period. Drivers should not be aware that the system is installed on the vehicle. Sharing anonymized data or data specific to the fleet participant may be possible after the study and analysis.

5. A statistically significant number of tires will be evaluated on a statistically significant number of vehicles. There is an expectation that some percentage of tires may be lost during the performance period, so initial quantities should be adjusted to account for this eventuality. FMCSA estimates 1188 tires, 66 trucks, and 66 trailers, assuming a 50% loss of tires. The research design from Phase 1 will establish the number. Not to exceed 90 trucks.

6. Tires on vehicles should be maintained as sets during the study period and routine rotation of tires should be captured. For instance, a trailer will have the same eight intelligent tires throughout the study. If the tires are rotated, the new positions will be updated in the data collection system. Tire maintenance should be provided by a cooperative partner that is aware of the study. Tires should be marked so that maintenance personnel are made aware of the study.

7. Each vehicle is expected to have a wireless data collection device to collect data from the sensors in the tires and forward that information at intervals to a web server database engine for storage and analysis. The frequency of data collection from the tires and the frequency of data upload to the cloud are part of the research design. In addition, the collection device should be equipped with GPS/GNSS. When data is collected from the tires, the position and speed of the vehicle shall also be obtained. If possible, local weather (ambient temperature, cloud cover, precipitation, etc.) should be logged.

8. It would be beneficial to have power unit & trailer matching in the research period. Many matched pairs of vehicles could garner additional weight transition dynamics across all weight-bearing vehicle tires.

9. It is expected that tires that experience failures of all modes be collected for analysis by a laboratory and the data collected to be used to find root cause analysis and failure modes for tires. Failed tires should be replaced by intelligent tires if possible/practical if significant time remains in the study period. Depending on the type of failure, dual pairs of tires may need to be changed at the same time. All removed tires should be analyzed.

10. At the end of the study, all tires are expected to be collected, and some or all tires are analyzed by comparing data to the wear patterns of the tires. In addition, computed tomography (CT) (or similar methods) scans should be taken of tires to identify failure modes that are not visible. The Contractor shall utilize the tire analysis vendor, identified in phase 1, for the analysis of failed tires in a laboratory setting.

11. The vehicles may or may not be equipped with tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMSs) or automatic tire inflation systems (ATISs). It is recommended to have a mix of not greater than 50% of tires with a technology solution.

12. The characterization of the vehicle shall be recorded for use with data analysis. The make, model, year, configuration, gross vehicle weight, and other essential information shall be gathered for power units. Sleeper cabs and day cabs are acceptable for this study. Special power units should not be considered. For trailers, the research would focus mainly on dry vans and refrigerator trailers. Flatbeds, tankers, and special-purpose trailers would not typically be considered part of the study. The type, make, model, year, gross vehicle weight, and trailer length should be collected.

13. A mix of short, mid, and long-haul companies should be considered with a preference for long-haul.

Data Analysis General Requirements and Expectations

1. Tire Failure/Significant Condition Reports during the study period– any tire failure data and, if possible, analysis of the carcass of the tire should be made for each tire failure during the study. This report includes information about the vehicle and the care and maintenance of the tire over the study period. Failure graphs indicating tire pressure, temperature, and strain on the failed tire to the point of repair or catastrophic failure should be one means of displaying data. The information about the load distribution across the remaining seven tires should also be explained. If a carcass is available, the report should include the report from the postmortem on the tire.

2. After Study Tire Analysis

a. A quantity of tires is expected to be operated under normal conditions (e.g., limited periods outside of inflation rating, not exceeding load, operating within the limits of temperature). These tires will be inspected, and the estimated number of miles traveled, as well as the wheel position, from the data, will be compared to the tread depth and tread wear patterns on the tire. If anomalies in the tire are noticed, this will be noted for further study. Adjacent tire data will also be evaluated.

b. A quantity of tires will have failures under many failure modes. The failure modes should be listed, and tires should be analyzed using specific analysis methods based on the failure mode. For instance, a tire that is run under pressure for extended periods of time during the study should be studied under a process focused on this failure mode. In contrast, a debris cause flat would be analyzed under another process. In all cases, adjacent tires on the vehicle should be considered.

3. Vehicle dynamics and vehicle stability based on the transfer of weight across the tires are major areas of interest for FMCSA. A complete analysis of distribution of weight across all eight drive or trailer tires will need to be completed. That distribution of weight will change along with tire inflation which may be affected by a number of factors (e.g., ambient temperature, road types, inattention to maintenance).

4. The data should be stored and maintained in such a way that other researchers on the topic of CMV tires may access and analyze other aspects of the data.

Subsequent Data Analysis and Reports

Data sets that have been processed and reduced shall be developed into de-identified data sets that are made publicly available. This requirement is outlined in the policy memorandum from the Office of Science and Technology Policy “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research” dated February 22, 2013 available at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf. This public use dataset shall contain the data at the individual level, not aggregated. All the datasets shall be documented with general information about the study as well as descriptions of each table and variable in the dataset. The documentation shall also include a description of the relationships of the tables in the dataset.

All PII shall be removed, including names of drivers, names of fleets, and other relevant variables. If necessary, other methods of protecting privacy shall be utilized, such as top-coding, bottom-coding, data swapping, or applying differential privacy techniques to protect study participants while still facilitating public-use files. For further guidance on public-use datasets, see the memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget, “Sharing Data While Protecting Privacy” at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2011/m11-02.pdf.

The data shall be housed in the FMCSA Data Repository.

Research Standards

FMCSA has identified several resources that provide widely accepted standard social science protocols for conducting sound research. The list at the link below, while not exhaustive, summarizes these protocols. Any entity conducting research, analysis, or other relevant work for the Agency must adhere to widely accepted research protocols.

See more at: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/research-and-analysis/research/source-guidelines-and-standards-conducting-and-managing-fmcsa

Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreements

No driver PII shall be collected during this data collection process. Company names, Motor Carrier ID, and DOT numbers of test vehicles shall be collected. Vehicle year, brand, model, and VIN number will be collected.

This project may require confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements with fleets that are included in the study.

RESEARCH TASKS

Overall Task The contractor shall submit monthly progress reports to FMCSA. At a minimum, the monthly progress reports will include a narrative description of the following items:

Optional Tasks: Tasked marked as optional may have been completed by the Phase 1 contractor. These tasks should still be considered in the contracts, but these tasks, if already completed in the Phase 1 contract, should be removable from the Phase 2 bids.

Task 1: Kickoff Meeting A kickoff meeting shall be held involving the key team members. The contractor shall prepare a briefing to review the workplan, including project tasks and timeline. The kickoff meeting shall provide an opportunity for key staff to meet and discuss project details. The contractor shall incorporate feedback from FMCSA and the kickoff meeting into the workplan.

Task 2: Contract Startup and Transition from Phase 1 Contractor If the phase 2 contract is awarded to a vendor that did not conduct phase 1, there shall be a period of transition between contractors. All project information, data, analysis, general knowledge, and outstanding efforts are to be transferred to the phase 2 contractor over a two-month period. Both contractors are being paid during this transition, so there shall be no exchange of money between the contractors. Contractors are expected to behave respectfully and in an open way to facilitate a graceful and complete transition. If the phase 2 contractor is also the phase 1 contractor, then Task 2 shall be skipped.

Optional - Task 3a: Conduct Peer Review of Research Design from Phase 1 Contractor (concurrent with Task 2) FMCSA will select independent peer reviewers. The contractor shall work together with FMCSA to plan the peer review meeting (location, time, duration, and agenda). The peer review meeting shall involve gathering input from subject matter experts regarding the study’s methodology. At the peer review meeting, the contractor shall present the workplan to the peer review group. The contractor shall write a report to summarize the information obtained during the peer review meeting including the input from the peer reviewers. The contractor shall incorporate feedback from the peer review into the workplan. The peer review report should follow FMCSA’s standard template. All deliverables must comply with US Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Access Board Standards available for viewing at http://www.section508.gov. The contractor shall compensate the peer reviewers.

Optional Task 3b: Obtain and Test Intelligent Tire sensors in a lab environment If not previously completed, obtain the recommended tire sensors from the list of vendors from Phase 1 and perform lab testing in tires to evaluate the performance, durability, and function. If necessary, the Contractor shall utilize tire and wheel dimensions used by the participant fleets to collect calibration data that will be needed for intelligent tire sensors.

Deliverable: Lab test results report with recommendations for moving forward with best performing sensors.

Optional Task 3c: Install Intelligent Tire Sensors in Commercial Motor Vehicle Tires and Evaluate Sensors Install selected sensors from task 3b into truck tires and run them on vehicles to assess the performance, durability, and function on vehicles. In addition, individual tire weight scales will be provided by the Phase 1 contractor to the Phase 2 contractor to establish equilibrium of weight across tires on the commercial motor vehicle(s) under test. Deliverable: Report of testing and recommendations of rankings for each sensor tested. Provide a strong recommendation for a single sensor choice with a recommended secondary sensor.

Optional Task 3d: Analyze Data from the Truck and Trailer Safety Stability Project to Evaluate Impact on this Study A static weight study was conducted by FMCSA and the Transportation Research Center to evaluate the weight distribution on static commercial motor vehicles. The raw data and report, if available, will be made available to further analyze and measure the impact of the information on the research design. Deliverable: A report indicating the analysis of the data and any perceived impacts this study may have on research design in this project.

Optional Task 3e: Update Research Design with Peer Review Comments and Other Task 3 elements listed above Given the information obtained in all Optional Task 3 subtopics, update the research design to reflect the outcomes of the previous subtasks. Deliverable: Final Research Design document.

Task 4: Establish Vendor Agreements and Establish Purchase Plan

Under task 4, the Contractor will work with FMCSA to establish a preliminary purchase plan for intelligent tire sensor kits and tires. The Contractor shall work with each of the selected vendors to identify lead times for each component. The Contractor shall ensure timely procurement of tires and intelligent tire sensor kits to accommodate installation and calibration of sensors (as needed), tires and data loggers. Deliverable: Preliminary purchase plan, deliver finalized purchase plan, Place orders

Task 4a: Engage Intelligent Tire Solution Provider There are several suppliers of intelligent tires and intelligent tire sensors. Several tire OEMs are working on this as well as several tire independent suppliers. In this task, the Contractor shall work with the intelligent tire solution provider to identify sensor lead times for the order quantities. It should also be noted that each intelligent tire sensor will require an initial calibration process, which is dependent on the dimensions of the tires and wheels. The process will require the collection of a small amount of data, which may need to be sent back to the intelligent tire sensor vendor. Deliverable: Agreement with selected intelligent tire solution provider.

Task 4b: Engage Fleets It is important that a wide variety of fleets be recruited to participate in the study. The goal of the research is to evaluate “typical” tire behaviors of fleets. Fleets that already have adopted intelligent tire solutions should be avoided. Where practical/possible, it would be advantageous to have matched pairs of truck & trailer in the recruited fleets. Existing use of TPMS and ATIS on some recruited fleets is acceptable. There should also be a fleet participation agreement that establishes the rules and guidelines for participation. Deliverable: Agreement for Fleets to participate.

Task 4c: Engage Fleet Service Company to Install and Maintain Tires and Engage Tire Analysis Vendor It is important to engage a national fleet services company that will install, maintain, and remove tires from participating fleet vehicles. This service company should also, as much as possible, deal with roadside tire failures, collecting the tire carcass and tire debris. The Contractor shall also engage the tire analysis vendor that will be root causing failed tires in a laboratory environment. Deliverable: Agreement with fleet services company (ies), agreement with tire analysis vendor

Optional -Task 5: Conduct Trials on Limited Number of Vehicles and Adjust Research Design Once the research design is established, the contractor shall conduct trials to ensure the processes are well established and that the expected behaviors are as designed. Deliverables: Research Trial Plan. Research Trial Report.

Task 6: Deploy and Begin Longitudinal Study This is the execution of the project. Under this task, the Contractor shall finalize the purchase plan with FMCSA and place orders for intelligent tire sensor kits and tires. Deliverable: Place orders for tires and sensor, Weekly status updates about deployment status.

Task 7: Monitor Fleets/Tires of participants and Capture Tire Failure Events During Longitudinal Study Period The intent of the project is not to notify the study participants of tire related issues. The participating fleets shall follow their existing behaviors for tire management. As tire issues are revealed, the contractor shall include failures and issues in their weekly reports. When a failure occurs, the tire service provider must be the servicing organization. The replacement tire should be a tire that has the same sensor unless the remaining research period is less than three months. Deliverable: Weekly status reports

Task 8: Conduct Postmortem on Failed Tires and Develop Reports Conducting postmortem analysis on failed tires which included logged data from intelligent tire sensors is crucial to the study results. If possible, tire carcasses, tire fragments, and associated articles related to the failure should be collected. In some cases, this may include the adjacent tire (e.g., long term run flat requires adjacent tire be replaced). Each tire shall have an independent report that stipulates the failure mode, data analysis, tire analysis, etc. drawing conclusions about the tire failure. Deliverable: Individual tire failure reports

Task 9: Retrieve All Tires Using the fleet services contractor, retrieve all tires at the end of the study. This should require the installation of a tire supplied by the fleet participants. Tires shall be moved to a location where the tires can be evaluated. Deliverable: Weekly status reports of the status of retrieval of tires.

Task 10: Categorize and Evaluate Tires After the tires are collected, the tires will be evaluated for defects and damage. It may be necessary to categorize tires according to the conditions the tire experienced in the field. This process should follow the research design. Deliverable: Weekly status reports of tire evaluation process

Task 11: Compare Tire Conditions to Analytics A comprehensive review of tire conditions and analytics shall be conducted drawing correlation between tire use and tire condition. Begin drawing conclusions of research data. Deliverable: Weekly status reports and preliminary conclusion briefings.

Task 12: Preliminary Report Presentation & Final Briefing Create a comprehensive preliminary report of findings. Deliverables: Preliminary written report and summary PowerPoint summary presentation. Final Briefing

Task 13: Conduct Peer Review of Findings, Results and Preliminary Report Conduct a second peer review of the preliminary report including the findings and results. The contractor shall write a report compiling the information obtained from the peer review along with a response to the peer reviewer’s concerns. The peer review report should follow FMCSA’s standard template. All deliverables must comply with US Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Access Board Standards available for viewing at http://www.section508.gov. The contractor shall compensate the peer reviewers.

Task 14: Submit Final Report and Research Brief Based on the feedback obtained from FMCSA on the draft report and the final briefing, the contractor shall deliver the final report. The contractor shall also deliver the Research Brief, a two-page summary of the study. The final report and research brief shall follow FMCSA’s standard template and be ready for publication. All deliverables must comply with US Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Access Board Standards available for viewing at http://www.section508.gov. Deliverables: Final Report and Research Brief

Task 15: Public Use Dataset and Complete Dataset The contractor shall deliver the complete dataset including PII. Also, the contractor shall deliver the public use dataset along with documentation describing the dataset as well as the data dictionary. Deliverable: Working with FMCSA, arrange a website portal for tire data search and download capabilities.

Task 16: Contract End Closeout At the end of the contract, the contractor shall deliver all recruiting website materials to FMCSA in an organized format that can be used by the future host of the recruiting website. Should it be deemed necessary by the FMCSA, there will be a two (2) month transition period between hosting duties by the contractor to the next hosting website. During the transition period, the contractor shall transfer all website materials to the next hosting website and respond to inquiries from the new host of the website.

Project Timeline (ATA: After Task Award)

Task 4 a - c: Establish Agreements with Fleets, Intelligent Tire Solution

and Adjust the Research Design

Tire Failure Events During Longitudinal Study Period Task 8: Conduct Postmortem on Failed Tires and Develop Ongoing 7 – 31 months ATA Reports

Deliverables The following deliverables shall be included.

Task 16

Key Personnel: Senior Technical Program Manager