SDA HQ085021S0001-08 TRACE STTR Final.pdf

Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)

Opportunity Announcement

HQ085021S0001-08

March 10, 2021

Target Recognition and Acquisition in Complex Environments (TRACE)

Which program will fund this topic?

STTR

DoD Technology Areas:

Space Platforms; Sensors, Electronics and Electronic Warfare

RT&L Technology Focus Areas:

Autonomy; Space Offense & Defense; Hypersonics

What type of proposals will be accepted?

Phase I

I. INTRODUCTION

The Space Development Agency (SDA) is issuing an SBIR/STTR Opportunity (SBO) inviting submissions of innovative research concepts supporting the advancement of our national defense space capabilities. In particular, SDA is interested in emerging algorithms for recognizing and discriminating fast moving, maneuverable targets from decoys and clutter in complex scenes that overhead persistent infrared (OPIR) sensors capture from space. High velocity, maneuverable targets include, but are not limited to, hypersonic glide vehicles, hypersonic cruise missiles, maneuvering re-entry vehicles, and glide vehicles, in addition to ballistic missiles and dim upper stages.

This SBO is issued under the SDA Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for SBIR/STTR, HQ085021S0001. All proposals in response to the technical area(s) described herein must be submitted in accordance with the instructions provided under HQ085021S0001, found here:

https://go.usa.gov/x724e/.

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items.

Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with section 3.5 of the Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws.

a. Eligibility

Please refer to Section 3.1, Eligible Applicants, of HQ085021S0001 for full eligibility requirements.

This SBO, HQ085021S0001-08, is being funded by the STTR program. The research objective of this SBO is also issued as an SBIR opportunity under SBO HQ085021S0001-07. Please review Section 3.1 subparagraph (b) and (c) of HQ085021S0001 for full eligibility requirements of the SBIR and STTR programs.

b. Anticipated Structure/Award Information

Please refer to Section 1, Funding Opportunity Description, and Section 2, Award Information, of HQ085021S0001 for additional details on the structure of this opportunity and prospective awards.

For this SBO, SDA will accept Phase I proposals for cost of up to $250,000 for up to a 12-month period of performance.

Proposers awarded a Phase I contract will be eligible to submit a proposal for Phase II and will be contacted by SDA at the appropriate time during their Phase I period of performance. If selected, Phase II will have a cost of up to $1,700,000 for a duration not to exceed 24 months.

c. Proposal Preparation Instructions

Proposers should refer to Section 4, Application and Submission Information, of HQ085021S0001 for detailed proposal preparation instructions. Proposals that do not comply with the requirements detailed in HQ085021S0001 and the research objectives of this SBO are considered non-conforming and therefore will neither be evaluated nor considered for award.

The Technical Volume of proposals shall not exceed 20 pages. Commercialization strategy shall not exceed 5 pages. This should be the last section of the Technical Volume and will not count against the 20-page limit. Please refer to Appendix A of HQ085021S0001 for detailed instructions on Phase I proposal preparation.

d. Evaluation of Proposals

Please refer to Section 5, Evaluation of Proposals, of HQ085021S0001 for a full description of the proposal evaluation and selection process.

e. Due Date/Time

Full proposal packages (Proposal Cover Sheet, Technical Volume, and Cost Volume inclusive of supporting documentation) must be submitted via the DoD SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP) per the instructions in Section 4, Application and Submission Information, of HQ085021S0001 no later than April 27, 2021 at 12:00PM ET.

f. Company Commercialization Report

Please refer to Appendix A, Section A.3.f of HQ085021S0001 for Company Commercialization Report guidance.

II. TOPIC OVERVIEW

a. Objective

Advance the capability and utility of algorithms for low-latency recognition and acquisition of tactically relevant targets from overhead persistent infrared (OPIR) systems.

b. Description

SDA is responsible for orchestrating the development, fielding, and operation of the DoD’s future threat-driven National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA), a resilient military sensing and data transport capability via a proliferated space architecture primarily in low earth orbit (LEO). To achieve this mission, SDA uses novel approaches to accelerate the development and fielding of military space capabilities necessary to ensure U.S. technological and military advantage in space for national defense.

To maximize the chances of mission success, adversaries use a variety of techniques to obfuscate weapons from sensors that are designed to detect them. This deception challenges many missions in national defense, customs, and law enforcement. The SDA has the national defense mission of detecting and tracking threats from space using satellites equipped with OPIR sensors. Dozens of weapon system threats may be launched in a raid. These threats are highly maneuverable and may travel in tight formation at many times the speed of sound. Add a low-contrast and cluttered background, and the chance of successful target recognition and acquisition drops significantly.

The purpose of this project is to advance the capability and utility of algorithms for low-latency recognition and acquisition of targets in complex environments by OPIR sensors in LEO. This project defines recognition (or the more common term automatic target recognition, ATR) as an OPIR system’s ability to identify or classify a target based on sensor measurements of its physical characteristics, motion, and effects. Target acquisition for the purpose of this project, refers to using ATR data to establish multiple target tracks, associate targets with discrete tracks [1] and, perhaps most challenging, extrapolate the track based upon measured characteristics and a priori knowledge.

In addition to advancing the state of the art in legacy algorithms [1-4], there is interest in new algorithms that can be adapted from other applications, such as customs, health care, and law enforcement; and other sensing modalities, such as radar [5]. There is no preferred approach to solving the TRACE problem. However, the successful approach will be practical for integration into operational systems in the next four years, and not lead to unreasonable resource demands on the sensor host platform or supporting systems in terms of computing resources, size, weight, and power.

To achieve this purpose, offerors may propose a Phase I STTR project. Phase I of the project shall deliver a technical concept report described in the section below. The Phase I report provides project evaluators the necessary information to determine if the algorithm has the potential to proceed to Phase II advanced development. Phase II configures a pre-existing experimental algorithm for the SDA mission and submits it to a program of verification and validation (V&V) in preparation for flight system integration.

c. Phase I

Emphasis of the Phase I effort should be to create a robust modeling and simulation framework to perform algorithm development, evaluation and trade space analysis for the SDA mission set. The Phase I report shall include a narrative that describes the algorithm analysis framework, solution algorithm(s), including background, assumptions, input parameters, conditions, outputs, and formulation. A section on validation presents quantitative evidence of the algorithm’s performance in response to TRACE problem scenarios based on the data listed below. A subsequent technical discussion section details risks and trade-offs in implementing the algorithm, such as the impact of filter application on target recognition and acquisition, or expected false positive rates associated with object classifiers. It is expected that algorithm development happens under an open framework architecture to allow for streamlined transition to relevant platforms. The report closes with conclusions and recommendations for Phase II advanced development and future work leading to deployment in operational systems.

Notional System Parameters

Parameter Value Units Comment Altitude of Satellite 1,200 km Circular orbit Altitude of Target 30 km Altitude above mean sea level Area of Sensor Spot 3000 deg2 Assume a circular spot on the earth Closely Spaced Objects (CSO) Separation

2 pixels Detect, with a probability greater than or equal to 0.9, Closely-Spaced Objects (CSOs) separated by 2 pixel instantaneous field of views (IFOVs) for targets of equal intensity and SNRs greater than or equal to 30, with a probability of false alarm less than or equal to 0.1.

Target Average Velocity 1,720 m/s Five times the speed of sound in standard atmospheric conditions at sea level

Spectral attributes of sensor observations used in algorithm development are left to the proposer. Consideration will be given to sensor modalities that do not utilize the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, the proposer must justify its efficacy in practical LEO sensor systems.

Phase I Schedule/Milestones/Deliverables

Month 1: Project kickoff briefing to SDA Tracking Cell Chief detailing the proposed technical approach and schedule with milestones.

Month 4: Quarterly progress report including technical progress to date and the technical plan for the remainder of Phase I.

Month 6: Phase I report delivery and briefing.

d. Phase II

Phase II is the advanced development project that includes V&V of the algorithm.

Advanced development integrates the algorithm with payload image processing software furnished by the Government. Validation is performed with Government furnished information (GFI) comprising actual infrared scene data from a future SDA flight program. The scenes capture the clutter background from LEO. Effective proposals discuss a V&V process that assembles scenes from image chips containing the flight program background and simulated targets with a range of emissivity (bright to dim, quantified by an analogous signal to clutter ratio). Detailed software development and V&V project test reports comprise the Phase II end item data package (EIDP). This shall be delivered at the end of the Phase II period of performance.

Phase II Schedule/Milestones/Deliverables

Month 1: Project kickoff briefing to SDA Tracking Cell Chief detailing the proposed technical approach and schedule with milestones.

Month 4, 7: Quarterly progress report including technical progress to date, risk, and project management information.

Month 12: Annual principal investigators (PIs) meeting that reviews technical progress since kickoff and discusses the plan for the remainder of the project, including changes to the project performance measurement baseline as a result of realized risks.

Month 16, 20: Quarterly progress report including technical progress to date, risk, and project management information.

Month 24: Phase II report delivery and final review that includes results and recommendations for Phase III.

e. Flight Testing and Dual Use Applications (Phase III)

Phase III work would prepare the sensor payload and data processing software with integrated algorithm for flight testing. This testing may occur with SDA Tracking Layer satellites launched in Tranche 2 in late 2026. Many commercial applications of thermal imaging may benefit from the advanced algorithm. In the case of customs and law enforcement mentioned above, an obvious commercial application is infrared security camera systems at airport checkpoints and other high-clutter environments.

f. References

1. Advanced Data Association Algorithms to Address Emerging Threats, Small Business Opportunity Number MDA19-T001, Department of Defense, 2019.

2. Gundogdu et. al, Automatic target recognition and detection in infrared imagery under cluttered background in Proceedings SPIE Vol. 10432, 2017.

3. Zhang, B., Zhang, T., Cao, Z., and Zhang, K., Fast new small-target detection algorithm based on a modified partial differential equation in infrared clutter in Optical Engineering, 46 10, 106401, https://doi.org/10.1117/1.2799509, 2007.

4. Chan, L.A., Nasrabadi, N.M., and Torrieri, D., Clutter Rejection Using Eigenspace Transformation in Proceedings SPIE Vol. 3718, pp. 67-78, 1999.

5. Cui, J., Gudnason, J., and Brookes, M., Maximum A-Posteriori Adaptive Masking for Clutter Suppression in Automatic Radar Target Recognition in Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE Conference on Radar, pp. 718-724.

g. Keywords

Automatic Target Recognition; Clutter; Infrared Search and Track; Low Earth Orbit;

Overhead Persistent Infrared; Satellite; Sensor; Space; Target Acquisition

III. SUBMISSION of QUESTIONS

From March 10, 2021 to March 25, 2021, this SBO is issued for Pre-Release. During the pre-release period, proposing firms have an opportunity to contact topic authors at osd.pentagon.ousd-r-e.mbx.hq085021s0001@mail.mil to ask technical questions about specific BAA topics. Questions should be limited to specific information related to improving the understanding of a particular topic’s requirement. Proposing firms may not ask for advice or guidance on solution approach and you may not submit additional material to the topic author. If information provided during an exchange with the topic author is deemed necessary for proposal preparation, that information will be made available to all parties through DSIP Topic Q&A module.

Once SDA begins accepting proposals on March 25, 2021, no further direct contact between proposers and topic authors is allowed unless the Topic Author is responding to a question submitted during the Pre-release period. However, proposers may submit written questions through the DSIP Topic Q&A module at https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/submissions/login. The DSIP Topic Q&A for this BAA opens on March 25, 2021 and closes to new questions on

April 13, 2021 at 12:00PM ET. Once the BAA closes to proposal submission, no communication of any kind with the topic author or through Topic Q&A regarding your submitted proposal is allowed.

SDA intends to use electronic mail for all correspondence regarding this SBO. Questions related to the technical aspect of the research objectives and awards specifically related to this SBO should be emailed to osd.pentagon.ousd-r-e.mbx.hq085021s0001@mail.mil. Please reference SBO HQ085021S0001-08 in the subject line. All questions must be in English and must include the name, email address, and the telephone number of a point of contact.

Technical support for the Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP) is available Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET. Requests for technical support must be emailed to DoDSBIRSupport@reisystems.com with a copy to osd.pentagon.ousd-r-e.mbx.hq085021s0001@mail.mil.