United States Department of Agriculture

Research, Education, and Economics

Agricultural Research Service

THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTES. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agriculture Research Service (ARS) is posting this pre-solicitation notice in accordance with FAR 5.101.

Point of Contact:

Frank Palmer, Contracting Officer frank.palmer@usda.gov

The proposed contract action will be a total small business set aside. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 334516 – Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing, which contains a size standard of 1,000 employees is applicable to this acquisition.

Description:

This requirement is for a SafetySpect Contamination, Sanitization Inspection, and Disinfection (CSI-D+) imaging system or Equivalent.

Scope of Work:

The Agricultural Research Service Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory (EMFSL) in Beltsville, Maryland, intends to purchase Contamination and Sanitization Inspection (CSI) and Contamination, Sanitization, Inspection, and Disinfection (CSI-D+) imaging systems to support the development of artificial intelligence models for detecting contaminated targets in cattle, swine, and poultry slaughter and processing facilities.

These handheld systems must be capable of acquiring multispectral fluorescence images under varying environmental lighting conditions to support contamination detection in field and processing environments. Each system must also be equipped with an embedded high performance single board computer, such as an NVIDIA Jetson platform, to support portable, real time image processing and analysis.

The goal of this research is to develop a rapid, portable inspection device for use in cattle, swine, and poultry slaughter and processing facilities. To ensure timely research progress and practical deployment, the systems must include sufficient graphics processing capability, random access memory, and onboard storage to enable real time inference and processing directly on the device.

Technical Specifications SafetySpect Contamination, Sanitization Inspection, and Disinfection (CSI-D+) imaging system or Equivalent:

• Megapixel resolution cameras must be capable of the following:

• Display Screen: 7-inch diagonal screen with 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution

• Size & Weight: Length: 11.85 in, Width: 4.5 in, Height: 6.8 in, Weight: 5.5 lbs

• Camera & Video:

• Device must have two cameras:

• One 1.2 MP camera at 20 fps for active scanning

• One 2.4 MP camera at 20 fps for active scanning

• Functionality: Includes dual-trigger LED illumination, video recording, and laser pointer

• Docking & Charging: Docking and charging station included

• Mounting: Compatible with tripod mounting

• Power & Battery: Built-in rechargeable 29V, 5Ah lithium-ion battery with power cable

• Sensors: LIDAR and accelerometer

• Connectivity: USB-C, Wi-Fi (802.11ac), Bluetooth 4.0

• LEDs:

• CSI+ model includes 405 nm and 275 nm LEDs

• CSI model includes 405 nm and 365 nm LEDs

Quotes for this requirement will be solicited from at least three sources in accordance with FAR 12.201- 1 ( c ) (2). This requirement will be awarded based on the lowest price technically acceptable. The anticipated award date is May 2026.

All responsible sources may submit a quotation which will be considered by the agency.

Vendors are required to be active and registered in the System for Award Management at www.sam.gov when submitting a quote and at time of award (FAR 52.204-7). Payment will be made utilizing the Department of the Treasury Invoice Processing Platform at www.ipp.gov. SAM.gov and IPP.gov are FREE, official websites of the United States government.

The Government reserves the right to reject, in whole or in part, any contractor's input resulting from this pre-solicitation notice. No contract will be awarded as a result of this notice. Data submitted in response to this pre-solicitation notice will not be returned. This request is for informational purposes only and the Government will not pay any costs associated with the preparation and submission of a response to this notice.

All interested contractors who can meet the requirements stated above should respond with information describing their interest, capabilities statements, and indicate the small business category for which they qualify. E-mail responses are required. The due date for responses to this pre-solicitation notice is at 11:00 am Mountain Daylight Time on Friday, May 1, 2026. Please email your responses to frank.palmer@usda.gov.

Electronic files must be in Microsoft Office Word or PDF format. All information must be UNCLASSIFIED material.

Respondents should include as part of their submission:

a. A synopsis of the company's capabilities to meet the requirements stated above (limit 5 pages).

b. UEI Number.

c. Company Name.

d. Company Address.

e. Business size as validated via the System for Award Administration (SAM). All offerors must register on the SAM located at http://www.sam.gov.

f. Company points of contact, phone number, and email address.

g. Past work experience. If you have experience working with other Federal Agencies and/or commercial businesses of similar size and scope, please include agency and/or business name contract number (if applicable), amount and type of contract.

Any company proprietary information must be marked as such.

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTE. Interested firms are reminded that in accordance with FAR 4.12, prospective contractors must complete electronic annual representations and certifications and in conjunction with FAR 4.11, are required to be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at the time an offer or quotation is submitted.

[END OF PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE]