CRFI - VisNav Flight Experiment_Final.pdf

Capability Request for Information (CRFI)

FA8650-20-S-9304

Air Force Strategic Development Experimentation & Planning (SDPE)

Visual Navigation Capability Flight Experiment

1.0 General Introduction

The Air Force Strategic Development Planning & Experimentation (SDPE) Office invites responses to this Capability Request for Information (CRFI) regarding a flight demonstration and experimentation opportunity for Visual Navigation (VisNav) systems.

The purpose of this RFI is to accomplish two objectives:

1) Engage with industry and obtain information (data call) on the availability of industry VisNav systems suitable to support prototype experimentation in a relevant environment

2) Identify candidate companies interested and ready to participate in an SDPE-sponsored VisNav flight experiment planned for June 2020, with potential opportunities for follow-on operational assessment and rapid transition to fielded capability

Many Air Force weapon systems today incorporate Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) capabilities that rely on the Global Positioning System (GPS) working in concert with a suite of onboard sensors to provide a navigation solution. In an environment where GPS is denied, degraded, or otherwise unavailable for extended durations, these navigation solutions may experience reduced accuracy that grows over time to unacceptable levels. A possible mitigation to this situation is to utilize onboard sensors for tracking visual landmarks to calculate vehicle position, velocity, and attitude. These VisNav systems may be used to augment or replace GPS in a contested environment and thus provide a more resilient navigation solution.

The SDPE Office supports Air Force development planning efforts by examining the operational utility of emerging technologies. These technologies are examined through experimentation and demonstration efforts designed to inform resource decisions for the rapid fielding of capabilities. Acting upon recommendation from the Air Force PNT Cross Functional Team, the SDPE Office is examining the operational utility of commercially available VisNav technologies. This evaluation is intended to provide flight experiment opportunities for multiple systems utilizing a baseline sensor, imagery set, and mission profile in order to facilitate a direct comparison of PNT algorithms and data processing strategies.

The SDPE Office anticipates providing this flight experiment opportunity incorporating a “partner” versus “contract” approach with industry to explore innovative solutions and identify opportunities for new warfighting concepts. SDPE intends to objectively assess against common criteria utilizing government reference architecture to the maximum extent possible. The goal of this effort is to identify viable VisNav candidate technologies for follow-on experimentation and continued advancement for rapid transition to fielded operations.

THIS IS A CAPABILITY REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. This CRFI solicits information from Department of Defense (DoD), other government agencies, US and/or foreign companies who are able to provide full or partial material solutions that may involve design, development, prototype(s), developmental and operational testing, and production of end items that offer solutions or added capabilities for Visual Navigation systems. This CRFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes.

It does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) and/or solicitation or a promise to issue a RFP and/or solicitation in the future. This CRFI does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, SDPE is not at this time seeking proposals, and will not accept unsolicited proposals. Responders are advised the U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in response to this CRFI. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. All costs associated with responding to this CRFI will be solely at the responding party’s expense.

Not responding to this CRFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP/solicitation, if any is issued. Small Businesses are encouraged to provide responses to this CRFI in order to assist SDPE in determining potential levels of competition available in the industry, as well as helping to establish a basis for developing any subsequent potential subcontract plan goal percentages. In accordance with Federal Acquisition accepted by the U. S. Government to form a binding contract.

It is the responsibility of the interested parties to monitor these sites for additional information pertaining to this CRFI. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this inquiry. This announcement is not to be construed as a formal solicitation. It does not commit the Government to reply to information received, or to later publish a solicitation, or to award a contract based on this information. All products must comply with the “Buy American Act”.

2.0 Proprietary Materials Protection

This notice is part of Government Market Research, a continuous process for obtaining the latest information from industry with respect to current and near-term capabilities that provide systems with the required performance as well as support the potential acquisition of various desired numbers of systems. The information collected may be used by the Government to explore acquisition options and strategies for the possible approaches within the military. All information received in response to this CRFI that is properly marked “proprietary” will be handled accordingly. Proprietary information must be clearly marked on the outside container and on the materials inside. The Government shall not be liable for, or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified.

CRFI responses, which contain information that is marked as “proprietary,” will be protected as proprietary information. Such information will be reviewed by a team comprised of Government as well as contractor personnel hired to provide technical assistance for the Government’s preparation of an acquisition strategy. All members of the team will be reminded of their obligation to protect such information to the maximum extent permitted or required by the Economic Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C. 1831 et. seq., and other applicable statutes or regulations.

Additionally, Government members will be reminded of their obligations to afford protection under the Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. 1905. All contractor members are required to protect the information by the terms of their contracts. Responders are advised that employers of commercial firms under contract of the government may be used to process responses, provide technical assistance, and/or other administrative duties requiring access to other contractor’s proprietary information. These support contracts include non-disclosure agreements prohibiting their contractor employees from disclosing any purpose other than which it was furnished.

3.0 Description

Candidate VisNav systems selected to participate in SDPE-sponsored flight experiments may take part in multiple flight experiment profiles. A minimum of two profiles will be available. The first flight experiment profile will incorporate low-medium altitudes (5- 20k feet) travelling at low-medium airspeeds. The second flight experiment profile will incorporate higher altitudes (> 20k ft) travelling at higher airspeeds (up to 0.95 Mach).

The specific aircraft and location supporting each flight experiment profile is TBD.

Flight experiment profiles may include a variety of aircraft attitudes, as well as varying terrain features, cloud coverage, and ambient light environments.

Candidate VisNav systems will conduct flight experiments using standardized flight profiles. SDPE will define “standard” flight profiles at a later date following feedback from industry submissions.

For each flight experiment, government baseline equipment/data will be made available to integrate with candidate VisNav systems. Utilization of government-provided equipment is not mandatory for candidate selection. It is anticipated the following equipment/data will be available for candidate VisNav systems:

• Aircraft-mounted pod (open-architecture reconfigurable pod utilizing standardized hardware and software interfaces)

• EO/IR camera

• Reference imagery (ground-truth) data set encompassing flight profile area

• Aircraft inertial measurement unit (IMU) data

• Baro Altimeter

• Time

• Lever arms

• GPS positional data (for initialization and truth)

Candidate systems will be expected to output their solution in real-time utilizing SDPE approved Open Architecture standards such as All Source Positioning and Navigation (ASPN). SDPE intends to maximize data collection opportunities by flying multiple VisNav systems concurrently during each flight experiment.

During each flight experiment, candidate VisNav systems are expected to perform real-time calculations of aircraft position, velocity, and/or attitude, along with an estimate of uncertainty. Calculated data will be stored for post-flight analysis.

4.0 Requested Information

4.1 Written Responses

Companies electing to participate in this data call should submit a White Paper that includes the following information:

• Business Background – Provide a brief company profile and general business background information

• VisNav System Description – Provide the following system information:

o System Characteristics – Describe the operating aspects of the system: camera characteristics, databases utilized, computational power, frame rate as input, and any additional software required to provide PNT information. This description should also include the size, weight and power (SWaP) of the current implementation and how it can interact or requires other system information such as an IMU, Time, Baro Altimeter or other aids to improve the solution.

o Accuracy – Describe the demonstrated or theoretical accuracy of the solution vs the true position of the system. In addition to position, systems with an IMU may also provide Orientation.

To fully specify an object in 3-D, combine position and orientation to obtain the Pose. Accuracy is a statistical measure of performance, and there are many factors that may impact accuracy of the VisNav system such as altitude, cloud cover, time of year, time of day, or aircraft dynamics. Please describe the factors that will impact the accuracy of your system and any proposals for mitigating these errors.

o Fix Rate – Describe the fix rate of the system (defined as the number of independent position fixes or data points available from the system per unit time).

o Fix Dimensions - Provide the dimensions of each position fix (e.g., Lat, Long, Alt; ECEF; Yaw, Pitch, Roll). The ability of the system to derive a fourth dimension (e.g., time) from the PNT signals should also be included.

o Integrity – Describe the integrity of the system. Integrity is the measure of the trust placed in the correctness of the information supplied by a PNT system. Integrity includes the ability of the system to provide timely warnings to users when the system should not be used for navigation. In practical terms, integrity is normally implemented as a variance-covariance matrix that reflects the accuracy of the solution.

o Spectrum - Provide any information on spectrum utilized beyond visual (such as IR).

o Cost and Complexity – Provide a full operational explanation of mission planning, initialization requirements and other factors such as camera calibration that may impact the ability of the military to operate the system. Even if the system is at an engineering level, please provide a plausible path to advance the technology as a military solution along with the cost to perform initial experiments and an estimate of what the per-unit-cost and typical operating cost would be if this solution was fielded in an operational environment.

• Prior Test/Experiment Results – Include descriptions of any previous test or experimental activities of relevant VisNav technologies and a summary of the results.

• Flight Experiment – Describe the proposed concept for flight experiment of the VisNav system, to include:

o Description of the VisNav system configuration (HW/SW supplied, HW/SW required, SWaP) o Description of required data (input) / generated data (output) o Illustrative diagram of all HW components, interconnects, and data flows o Desired flight experiment profile (e.g., desired duration, aircraft attitudes, altitudes, airspeeds, terrain coverage, environmental conditions, etc.)

4.2 CRFI Response Section Composition

CRFI responses must be comprised of two (2) sections as described in Section 4.3.1 or “Section One” and 4.3.2 or “Section Two” below. Please limit your responses to a page count of 5 pages or less for Section One and 25 pages or less for Section Two.

4.2.1 CRFI Response – Section One

Provide administrative information in Section One of your response in a Microsoft Word compatible document. Address at least the following in Section One:

Company Name Point of Contact (POC) name Mailing Address Overnight Delivery Address (if different from mailing address) Phone Number Fax Number E-Mail Address of POC Please provide a statement that the respondent will allow or will not allow the Government to release proprietary data to the Government support contractors identified.

Companies will provide plan(s) for complying with the Buy American Act.

4.2.2 CRFI Response – Section Two

Provide the information requested in paragraph 4.1 above in Section Two of your response. Please provide responses in Microsoft Word compatible documents, Microsoft PowerPoint compatible presentations, Adobe .pdf files, Microsoft Excel compatible Spreadsheets and/or a combination thereof.

Submit responses in both electronic (soft) and printed (hard) copy forms. Submit electronic copies via email to brien.house@us.af.mil and paul.smith.23@us.af.mil no later than 24 January 2020 @ 5:00 PM EST.

Title e-mail responses in the subject line of the e-mail as follows:

“RESPONSE TO SDPE o n a Visual Navigation Capability Flight Experiment”

Additionally, provide two printed (hard) copies of each response either by certified mail or hand delivery to:

SDPE

1864 4th Street, Bldg. 15 Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433

NLT 24 January 2020 @ 1700 EST.

Questions: Responses from U.S. and non-U.S. firms will be accepted to this Visual Navigation Capability Flight Experiment CRFI. Responses to questions from interested parties will be collected, answered and posted back to the beta.sam.gov website as an amendment to this CRFI. Should proprietary information be involved, or the answer addresses a question peculiar to a certain Company, the response will be provided on an individual and case-by-case basis. Post submittal, one-on-one information sessions with respondents are not contemplated; however, they may be offered to responders to clarify the government’s understanding of their submittal, the capability ramifications, or to discuss their business approach. Information feedback sessions may be offered to mailto:brien.house@us.af.mil mailto:paul.smith.23@us.af.mil respondents after the CRFI assessments are completed.

Technical Point of Contact is Lt Col Brien House, Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation, AFLCMC/SDPE, brien.house@us.af.mil. This notice may be updated as additional information becomes available. For more information on “Visual Navigation Capability Flight Experiment” please contact the AF POCs using the email addresses listed below.

AF Points of Contact (POC) for Visual Navigation Capability Flight Experiment CRFI:

Mr. Paul E. Smith, Contracting Officer, 937.713.9974 paul.smith.23@us.af.mil

Mr. Joel Watson, Contracting Officer, 937.713.9813 joel.watson@us.af.mil

Lt Col Brien House, Program Manager, 850.374.0348 brien.house@us.af.mil

Verbal questions will NOT be accepted. All questions will be answered via posting answers to this website; except as provided above. Additionally, questions must NOT contain trade secrets or classified information. The Government reserves the right to not address questions received after 24 January 2020.

Summary THIS IS A CAPABILITY REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (CRFI) ONLY to identify the capability to provide a Visual Navigation system for flight experimentation. The information provided in the CRFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. SDPE has not made a commitment to procure any of the items discussed, and release of this CRFI should not be construed as such a commitment or as an authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement would be required or sought. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

mailto:brien.house@us.af.mil mailto:paul.smith.23@us.af.mil mailto:joel.watson@us.af.mil mailto:brien.house@us.af.mil