DARPA-SN-23-51.pdf

DARPA-SN-23-51

Notice of Intent to Award a Sole Source Contract for DARPA Triage

Challenge (DTC) Virtual Testbed

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Contracts Management Office (CMO), intends to award a sole source contract to Applied Research Associates (ARA), 12249 Research Parkway, Suite 260, Orlando, FL, under the authority of FAR 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements, 10 U.S.C. 2304(c) (1).

The proposed procurement is for the development, delivery, and support of a high-fidelity open-source medical triage virtual testbed for use by the organizers and teams of the DARPA Triage Challenge (DTC), supporting technology development efforts as well as the execution of the virtual and real-world challenge events. The DTC will bring together multi-disciplinary teams and industries that will identify physiological signatures and develop sensor and algorithm strategies for complex mass casualty incident (MCI) settings. The DTC includes a Primary Triage Competition (injury signatures from stand-off sensors on robotic platforms) and a Secondary Triage Competition (injury signatures from non-invasive sensor data).

The DTC aims to drive breakthrough innovations in identification of signatures of injury that will help medical responders perform scalable, timely, and accurate triage. Of particular interest are MCIs in both civilian and military settings, when medical resources are limited relative to the need.

The DTC virtual testbed will support this goal by providing an MCI virtual environment, automated testing and assessment tools, and associated software support infrastructure to be provided as government-furnished equipment (GFE) on a free and open-source basis.

The DTC virtual testbed will be developed to emulate MCI scenarios as realistically as possible, including numerous high-fidelity casualty models, large-scale 3D virtual environments, realistic sensor models across multiple sensing modalities, and a range of heterogeneous autonomous systems (e.g., aerial and ground robots). Of particular interest are a diverse range of high-fidelity, physiologically realistic casualty models. Casualty models are required to not just be visually realistic, but must present highly realistic signatures across a range of sensing modalities such as visual, thermal, LIDAR, RADAR, and other novel sensors identified by DARPA. Casualty models are required to be articulated, dynamic, diverse, and integrated with a comprehensive physiology engine that is capable of modeling realistic, time-variant injuries including variation in type and severity of injuries.

DARPA intends to make the DTC virtual testbed available to all DTC teams across both Primary Triage and Secondary Triage competitions. Teams will leverage this DARPA-provided virtual environment for development and assessment of their proposed solutions. Because this virtual testbed is required to support the execution of the challenge events of the DTC, it will require leveraging existing capabilities that already demonstrate a high degree of maturity and fidelity with the ability to rapidly extend the performance and features to meet the timeline requirements of the challenge. The virtual testbed is intended to leverage pre-existing open-source resources including BioGears, an open-source comprehensive human physiology engine. The virtual testbed will be made available on an open-source basis, with no additional paid tiers or features, and will be hosted so that participants in the DTC can access and utilize it freely.

Award to a source other than ARA would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government and unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements as ARA is the sole viable supplier for providing the necessary open-source virtual testbed with the required level of maturity within the specified timeframe.

This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals and no solicitation is currently available. However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement. Responses received within fifteen (15) days after date of publication of this notice will be considered by the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed effort on a full and open basis is solely within the discretion of the Government. Interested parties may identify their interest and capability to meet the requirements by submitting a white paper and past performance data by no later than Monday, March 28, 2023, 4:00 PM ET to DARPA-SN-23-51@darpa.mil.

Primary Point of Contact:

Lydia Richards Contracting Officer DARPA-SN-23-51@darpa.mil

Secondary Point of Contact:

Jean-Paul Chretien Program Manager DARPA-SN-23-51@darpa.mil mailto:DARPA-SN-23-51@darpa.mil mailto:DARPA-SN-23-51@darpa.mil mailto:DARPA-SN-23-51@darpa.mil