Antenna Control System

This is a request for information (RFI) issued by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for information and planning purposes only. This is neither a formal Request for Proposals (RFP) or quotes. No awards will be made from the responses to this announcement. The Government will not reimburse any costs associated with the development and submission of materials in response to this request. There is no solicitation available at this time. However, should such a requirement materialize, no basis for claims against NRL shall arise as a result of a response to this notice or NRL's use of such information as either part of our evaluation process or in developing specifications for any subsequent requirement.

Objective:
The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is inquiring for potential brand name or equal sources that are capable of providing the following:

1. (1) Model 990 Antenna Control System that meets the following specifications:

• Antenna Control System must be technically compatible with and capable of controlling the existing antenna system: a Vertex-RSI full motion large aperture 30m antenna terminal capable of tracking up to 10 degrees/sec in azimuth and elevation up to 85 degrees.

• Antenna Control System must be capable of controlling a total of six brushless DC motors: 3, 40 HP in azimuth and 3, 40 HP in elevation.

• All six brushless DC motors must be permanent magnet type with torque source to control the antenna to zero RPM.

• All six DC motors must provide DC tachometer, virtual tachometer, and incremental encoder motor rate feedback.

• Antenna Control System must use Kollmorgen S700 Series motor controllers, variable speed.

• Position encoder must be two, Heidenhain ROC 437 Multiturn Encoders with 25 Bit Resolution and +/-20 Arc-Second accuracy per revolution.

• DSP servo loop closures must be located in the Power Drive Unit and managed by QNX Real Time Operating System.

• CPU logic must be located in the Power Drive Unit.

• A drive isolation transformer must be part of the Antenna Control System.

• Power Drive Unit cabinet must be stainless steel, NEMA-4X rated enclosure.

• Power Drive Unit must have redundant, fail-safe interlock logic to immediately disable drives upon an axis or system fault, safety rated relays that interface directly to emergency stop switches, and soft stop logic for non-emergency stops (issues zero rate command and allows motors to gradually decelerate prior to disabling the axis).

• Antenna Control Unit display must be 15" touch screen LCD color display with Az/El actual and commanded positions, currently selected modes/states, summary fault indicator and indidivual status and fault message display.

• Antenna Control Unit operations modes must include Tracking (Optrack, Steptrack, Monopulse), Pointing (StarTrack, Preset, Designate, NORAD, Table Track), and Other (Maintenance, Manual, Stop, Computer, Simulator).

• Antenna Control Unit must be time synchronized via NTP, IRIG-B, or 1PPS.

• Antenna Control System must include a Portable Maintenance Unit that provides manually commanded, bi-directional control of all axes, hand held, backup means of moving antenna and ACU independent, four line 20 character display for axis positions, mode, and scrolling status messages, modes to include position jog and hi/lo variable speed, and a function to enable/disable the antenna per axis.

The NRL asks that interested parties, at a minimum, supply the following information:

Contact Information
a) Name of Company, mailing address and Point of Contact (POC)
b) Telephone Number, Fax Number, Address and e-mail address of POC
c) Business Size and number of employees
d) If a small business identify if your firm is an 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB.
e) If your company is a GSA schedule contract holder and if the items are available under schedule

Submission of Information:
All information and data received in response to this RFI marked or designated as corporate or proprietary information will be protected as such. Please include this notice number on all documents and email. Classified Material shall not be submitted. Please transmit responses by e-mail to Annie Lenfest, contract specialist, at anastasia.lenfest@nrl.navy.mil in either Microsoft Office or pdf formats. All responses must be received on or before 2:00PM, (EST), 17 September 2018.
Phone solicitations or emails regarding the status of this Request for Information (RFI) will not be accepted.

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