Notice of Intent to Award Sole Source for WindShape.pdf

Notice of Intent to Award Sole Source

T HIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT AND IS

N OT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE QUOTES.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) AMES Research Center intends to award a Firm-Fixed-

Price sole source contract under the authority of FAR 6.302-1 – Only One Responsible Source to:

WindShape, Inc.

1211 W 36TH ST N TULSA,

OK 74127-1517 USA

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this requirement is 541715

“Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)”

NASA AMES has a need for a wind-generating system for an indoor laboratory designed to study aerial robotics. The system should be composed of numerous, individually controllable (via a laptop-class computer) small (but powerful) fans, with the fans mounted in a rectangular modular array that can be repositioned (rolled) within the confines of an existing 40 foot by 70-foot indoor robotics laboratory test area at Ames (building M45). This indoor test area is currently outfitted with an OptiTrack motion-capture system

(a set of high-performance cameras) that allows for the attitude and motion of flying robots to be recorded. In order to study the effects of time-, speed-, and spatially-varying winds on flying robots, we require the array of fans to be approximately 9 feet wide by 6 feet tall and capable of providing accurate and finely-detailed control over individual regions of the array (the mental notion of a ‘fan/wind pixel’ may be helpful here). We estimate that to provide the required ‘wind resolution’ for an array of this size, each ‘fan/wind pixel’ should be approximately 2” to 5” in diameter, with the system consisting in total of approximately 500-600 individual high-powered fans. To provide the best flow quality (free of excessive swirl from individual fans), the fans should counter-rotate. All electronics and wiring should be integrated within the fan array housings and supports, and the power supply and connections should be compatible with industry standards for laboratory equipment. Each fan must have the capability to communicate with the control computer via software, and that software should be easily configurable by the user (via a modern programming language) to create a variety of user-defined flow patterns that can vary in wind duration, pattern, and/or wind strength.

Listed below are the components required:

Product Name Description Qty

Unit of

Issue

Fan Modules

Contra-rotative fans - 110W each -

15.6m/s

Power & control unit (PnC) with ethernet interface

Aluminum structural frame and duct

Integrated electronics and wiring

Installation and commissioning of all equipment on-site 63 Ea

Fan Frame

Structural and fastening elements

Power distribution units

Power cables and networking elements 1 Ea

Wind Control Software Unlimited access and updates 1 Ea

Delivery 1 Ea

This synopsis does not constitute a solicitation; however, if any interested party believes they can meet the above requirement, it may submit a statement of capabilities. The statement of capabilities must be submitted in writing and must contain clear and convincing evidence that competition of this requirement would be advantageous to the Government. If parties choose to respond, any cost associated with the preparation and submission of data or any other cost incurred in response to this announcement are the sole responsibility of the respondent and will not be reimbursed by the Government.

Capability statements shall be submitted by e-mail ONLY as a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF attachment no later than 09/21/2023 at 12 a.m. (CST) to the Contracting Officer at christy.r.moody@nasa.gov.

mailto:%20christy.r.moody@nasa.gov.