Air Force sbir 04. 1 Proposal Submission Instructions
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| PHASE II: Develop and demonstrate a nearly complete prototype of the Phase I design. The demonstration will show the RTAG functionality, and will prove that the system design can safely and efficiently interoperate with modern-day avionics. The system operation will be evaluated using representative S-DM-S scenarios to characterize RTAG utility.
DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION: This phase will concentrate on the flight test certification of the RTAG concept and prototype developed in phase II, as well as validation of benefits provided in dynamic retasking scenarios and demonstrating streamlining of the Kill Chain. The RTAG concept also has a potential application to the commercial airline industry particularly in high traffic terminal areas where Air Traffic Control (ATC) rerouting can occur. An austere version of the RTAG could be of great benefit to civil aviation as well. Ground based applications are also conceivable. REFERENCES: Aerospace & High Technology Database: 1) “Real Time Information into the Cockpit: A Conceptual Overview”, B. Bishop, 1998 2) “Evaluation of airborne data link communication”, Mueller, Giesa, Anders, 2001 3) “Priorities, Organization, and Sources of Information Accessed by Pilots in Various Phases of Flight”, Schvaneveldt, Beringer, Lamonica, Tucker, Nance, 2000 4) “Situational awareness in the tactical air environment; Proceedings of the 4th Annual Symposium, Piney Point, MD, June 8, 9, 1999” AIAA KEYWORDS: Awareness, Real time Information Cockpit (RTIC), Sensor to Shooter. AF04-091 TITLE: Dynamic Replanning and Assessment TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems OBJECTIVE: Investigate methods of applying the new science of complex adaptive systems theory to the problem of dynamically planning, executing, and assessing effects-based operations. WARFIGHTER IMPACT: Better forecast of effects achievable for a given Course of Action (COA) through a more accurate and dynamic simulation of the action-reaction interplay of Blue and Adversary COA. DESCRIPTION: Effects-based operations (EBO) depends heavily upon the ability to predict, that is, to trace and understand direct, indirect, cumulative and cascading effects as they course throughout an enemy-as-a-system. Unfortunately, as the pace, uncertainty, and diversity of military operations increase; the ability of current or planned systems (comprised of human and machine elements) to keep up is falling short. The battlespace exhibits all the characteristics of a complex and adaptive system. The number and diversity of the elements means the ability to predict dynamic structural behavior through the detailed analysis of individual elements is low. Conflict is characterized by the interaction of intelligent human beings that react and adaptive to changes in the battlespace. Finally, the Blue, adversary, neutral and unknown elements in the battlespace react and change to each other and the environment—the classic definition of a system. Complex adaptive systems theory has been applied to a wide range of disciplines such as economics, biology, and even military decision making. The goal of this SBIR is to move the theory into algorithm and software development with an eye towards developing decision support tools that allow commanders to model, simulate, and analyze how their proposed COA “plays out” in a dynamic and complex battlespace. For example, when facing a time-sensitive or emerging target situation, commanders may wish to evaluate various options and know which attain the desired effects matched against various evaluative criteria such as probability of attrition or probability of collateral damage. PHASE I: Develop and demonstrate the application of complex adaptive systems (cas) theory and techniques to the unique information and decision support requirements of EBO. PHASE II: Continue algorithm development and characterize the operational and system architectural views of an effects-driven, cas-based decision support tool that enhances COA development, analysis, comparison, and selection through the incorporation and simulation of adversary COA. DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION: The new algorithm developed under this effort will be directly applicable to effects-based training, mission rehearsal, contingency planning, execution and assessment, and force structure analysis. Effects based operations can also be applied to commercial industry. The technology developed by this effort can model a market as a complex adaptive system and perform predictive analysis of product entry in to that market. REFERENCES: 1. Effects Based Operations A Grand Challenge for the Analytical Community, Paul K. Davis, RAND 2. Effects Based Operations Applying Network Centric Warfare in Peace, Crisis and War, Edward A. Smith, CCRP 3. Identifying, Understanding, and analyzing Critical Infrastructure Interdependencies, Steven Rinaldi, James Peerenboom, Terrence Kelly, IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 2001 4. From Physics to Finances: Complex Adaptive Systems Representation and Infrastructure, Naval Surface Warfare Center Technical digest, In press 5. Implementation of battlespace agents for network-centric electronic warfare, J.C. Sciortino, J. F. Smith, et al, SPIE Int. Society of Optical Enginnering, April 2001 KEYWORDS: Effects-based operations, uncertainty, complex adaptive systems, algorithm and software development, decision support, adversarial modeling AF04-094 TITLE: XML Guard TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems OBJECTIVE: Investigate cross-domain guarding advancement opportunities made possible by the rapid growth of XML technologies. DESCRIPTION: As the AF and DoD move towards network centric warfare and information superiority structure, web-based access to secure data is a critical support feature for the warfighter, all without compromising Information Assurance (IA). The provision of effective network access controls and security mechanisms which help to maintain the integrity of mission data flow processes is a cornerstone element of efforts like the Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI) and Network Centric Enterprise Services (NCES) programs. In many cases, these mission data flows occur across security domains (top secret->secret, US secret->coalition , etc.). The rapid adoption of XML technologies by commercial and Government systems, which is helping accelerate the web-enabling of both commerce and military, is driving the need for cross-domain guarding solutions to further leverage XML capabilities. Existing solutions have the capability to process and filter XML files using basic parsing and regular expression matching techniques and tools. As more and more systems “XMLize” their data, this capability will have an increasing impact. However, this is not enough. XML related technologies, such as Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT), presents an opportunity to transform XML documents to a lower classification for release through a guard. The use of XML for establishing content filtering rules and the use of XSL as a means of presenting these rules for security review and approval could significantly improve the flexibility of guarding solutions. The use of XML extensions accommodating digital signatures postures guards for being able to auto filter (no human reviewer-in-loop) high-to-low dissemination of signed XML products (e.g. web server data). The combination of pre-approved signed XML files with IPv6 and fiber link technologies could result in realization of high-speed guards capable of moving releasable imagery of gigabyte sizes between domains with a latency of single digit seconds. These examples illustrate the untapped potential of XML-related technologies to rapidly advance the information sharing capabilities offered by cross-domain guarding solutions. This technology area is a growth market which is ripe for innovation as information sharing and information access are fundamental components of the Air Force Transformation and our Nation’s vigilant transformation towards improved homeland security. PHASE I: Investigate cross-domain guarding advancement opportunities made possible by maturing and emerging XML technologies and deliver an innovative prototype guarding solution which includes at least one of the following features: - use of XML transformation techniques (such as XSLT) for product sanitization and cross-domain dissemination - XML-based rules for content filtering - auto dissemination of signed XML - support for IPv6 PHASE II: Perform a second phase investigation based on findings from Phase I and emergence of new XML related capabilities. Conduct a downselect of advancement opportunities to a short list of high-payoff items and produce/demonstrate a prototype guarding solution which is compliant with DCID 6/3 requirements. DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION: Military - enhancement to existing cross-domain guarding solutions implemented throughout the DOD, US Intelligence Community, and Coalition forces. Commercial – information sharing solutions which enable bridging of intranets within a single company (financial<>legal) or between companies which are part of a consortium. REFERENCES: 1. Director Central Intelligence Directive (DCID) 6/3 - Protecting Sensitive Compartmented Information within Information Systems, 12 Apr 2002 2. IETF/W3C XML-DSig Working Group - http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3275.txt KEYWORDS: XML, XSLT, cross-domain guarding, MLS, IPv6, information sharing, digital signatures, PKI AF04-097 TITLE: Metadata Generation TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems OBJECTIVE: Automatically Index and tag all multimedia intelligence documents, for storage, web based retrieval, and summarization, providing “quick look” global awareness of all available Homeland Security information. DESCRIPTION: The major complaint that is being heard from the Intelligence and Homeland Defense user communities is the inability to quickly, and easily find items of interest across the Government's web based systems. Furthermore, these same communities complain about the time and expense of generating metadata to alleviate their problems. Metadata is generated manually making timely intelligence information very expensive or simply non-existent. Metadata, XML, and Document tags are intended to provide greater insight into the content and structure of information and, thereby, to facilitate discovery by query and retrieval tools. The problem is that today only humans generate metadata creating a situation that is error prone, time consuming and labor intensive for both those who generate the information and those that use it. Information indexes, should be developed by the computer, retrieved by the computer, and graphically summarized by the computer. Computer generated metadata should use a signature analysis technique describing text and multimedia data as a compressed “image” in the web based library index. Furthermore, every entry in the library should be zoned, parsed, and geospatially tagged so that information can be summarized with a timeline/ temporal analysis displays (icons on an image, geographic map background, or timeline), Indications and Warning (I&W) display or some other graphic. Information users should not be forced to actually read the entire web holdings in order to get a sense of what information is stored on all of its servers. PHASE I: Perform feasibility study with initial implementation and experimentation on the proposed approach, and provide initial results potential proving the validity of the approach and use as an information management system PHASE II: The second phase develops a fully functional prototype to support a broad range of intelligence and surveillance web users. DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION: This technology is directly applicable to a broad range of military applications. Known commercial application areas include general internet search engines and specialized search engines for medical, bioinformatics, drug discovery, financial, and leagal applications. COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL: Recent Internet markets indicate the growing need to manage large complex web based libraries. ). Dual Use Potential is enormous since all industries that will use Web based communications have requirements for automated metadata generation. REFERENCES: Related References: 1. Tannenbaum, A. (2001). Metadata Solutions: Using Metamodels, Repositories, XML, and Enterprise Portals to Generate Information on Demand. Addison Wesley Professional, Reading, MA. 2. Berry, M. W., Browne, M. (1999). Understanding Search Engines: Mathematical Modeling and Text Retrieval (Software, Environments, Tools). Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA. 3. Baeza-Yates, R., Ribeiro-Neto, B., Baeza-Yates, R. (1999). Modern Information Retrieval. Addison-Wesley Pub Co., Reading, MA. 4. Guidelines for Intelink Metadata, Version 1.1: Intelink Conference, San Antonio TX, August 1998 5. Proceedings Intelink Conference, New Orleans LA , May 2002 KEYWORDS: metadata, indexing, text understanding, intelligent systems, document tags, XML, search engines AF04-100 TITLE: Achieving Ubiquity: Technologies to Make Intelligence Available Everywhere on Demand TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems OBJECTIVE: Make warfighting data, information, and knowledge available on demand everywhere on earth. WARFIGHTER IMPACT: Provide warfighters with the information they need, in a format that they can use, no matter where they are, or what communication equipment they possess. DESCRIPTION: Develop an adaptable capability for the automated tailoring of intelligence for dissemination to a wide variety of warfighting users anywhere on the planet. Current intelligence communication protocols are network and host dependent and extremely constrained by a combination of bulk and internal encryption based on the specifics of the transmission path. Subscribers to intelligence product lines, or warfighters desiring point-to-point transfer of specific data, should be able to send queries with identifying features that will allow the providing systems to adapt both the data stream characteristics and content according to the requester's host and communication constraints. Required is not a new hardware communication infrastructure, but a set of applications and protocol modifiers capable of adapting to the universe of protocols that might be required in the battle space for dynamic routing management. The focus will be on the methods to expedite the sensor-to-shooter linkage in a future IP-centric architecture. This will entail not only protocol management, but achieving dynamic routing within tactical environments. One example is the need to pass formatted threat data (via Link 16) to an imperiled F-15 aircraft that has requested threat status. PHASE I: Produce a feasibility study of a specific subset of intelligence information management as it pertains to our current view of sensor-to-shooter network-centric warfare. Focus on the process of how intelligence information flows from the integrated sensor platforms and ground stations to the warfighter in the field. Identify what application and communication protocol (including encryption and multi-level security) bottlenecks exist that prevent the orderly flow of intelligence information from the collection point to the end-user. Identify what protocols and data identification tools exist (XML Metatags, JAVA APIs, etc.) that will contribute to data interoperability. Identify current protocol and format management and data compression techniques that enable ubiquitous information transmission. PHASE II: Develop and demonstrate (in a Government-designated laboratory) a prototype of a software capability for the automated tailoring of Intelligence for Ubiquity (IU). Sample data sets, communication path specifications and client configurations will be provided by the Government for acceptance testing. PHASE III: Continue system development, develop an IU CONOPS and demonstrate an IU prototype in the Air Force Transformation Center (alternatively CAOC-X and/or AF DCGS’s DGS-X). DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION: Technology developed under this program will be directly applicable to delivering advanced sensor capabilities to a wide variety of ground ISR users and providers (through AF DCGS) and to operational end-users of ISR products in the AOC and Theaters. I&W and S&W are the most heavily impacted missions. There are no standardized data transport and point-to-point protocol management applications strong enough to operate at the enterprise level. Additionally, an adaptive capability to take into account changing network structures (as in coalition warfare) is absent. Creating an adaptive capability has great promise for commercialization. The underlying technology that enables the screening and interpretation of different types of intelligence information can be used to enable the receipt and interpretation of different types of industrial information without building a new tool for each situation. KEYWORDS: C4ISR, DCGS, Network-Centric, Collection Management, Dynamic Routing, Data Transport, Dynamic Protocol Management, Tactical Communications Networks AF04-101 TITLE: Data Compression TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems OBJECTIVE: Develop image and video compression techniques that will significantly increase the transmission capability of current data links by providing greater compression ratios without additional degradation relative to current techniques for targeting and tracking. DESCRIPTION: The timely collection and / or distribution of digital information is critical to modern warfighters operating in a system of systems environment. The capability and speed of collection, storage, and distribution mechanisms continues to increase, but it still lags the demand for data. The advent of higher resolution collection systems and the tying together of multiple aircraft and aircraft sensors is further widening the gap. Conventional compression techniques, including those based on JPEG, wavelet,and fractal algorithms, cannot meet the current data transmission requirements and offer little potential for meeting future requirements. The intent of this solicitation is to develop new techniques that exceed the performance of existing bandwidth compression techniques should not degrade data to be compressed and analyzed further than current techniques. Likewise, the computational complexity of new Techniques should not significantly exceed that of current techniques in areas of data security, image tracking and video streaming. PHASE I: Define details of the new compression technique at a level sufficient to permit implementation in software during Phase II. Provide evidence for the technique's potential by estimating performance in terms of compression ratios relative to losses, along with computational complexity. Develop a plan to integrate the technique into the F/A-22 integrated avionics system including multi-level data security (watermarking) during Phase II. PHASE II: Develop prototype software to implement the Phase I approach. Demonstrate the technique's performance using real data pertinent to the F/A-22 weapons system. Use these results to develop a preliminary design for a deployable Phase III implementation, consisting of hardware and software as appropriate. DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION: The technology developed would significantly improve the performance of all military and commercial systems that rely on the collection and distribution of digital data. The biggest commercial application is in Video Streaming via the Internet, itself, which is currently choked with digital image and video data. In the medical arena, x-ray compression and remote analysis of patient information and monitoring equipment, will see strong benefits. REFERENCES: 1) R. Gopinath and C. Burrus, Introduction to Wavelets Transform, A Primer. Englewood cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall 1998. KEYWORDS: Bandwidth compression, watermarks, wavelets, networks, data links, hardware implementation AF04-102 TITLE: Sensor Resource Management for Improved Situational Assessment TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors, Electronics, Battlespace OBJECTIVE: Develop approaches and techniques for performing sensor resource management based upon the information requirements needed to detect and identify tactically significant activities. WARFIGHTER IMPACT: Improved Situational Awareness enabling the identification of militarily significant units and tactically significant activities within the battlespace. DESCRIPTION: Sensor Resource Management (SRM) is the process by which strategies are determined for scheduling the allocation of sensor activities. Effective sensor management is an essential problem encountered in several areas such as aerospace, automation, defense, environmental, geographical, meteorological, and medical, to name a few. Today, the management of distributed sensor systems is mainly focused on reducing uncertainty in the detection, tracking and identification of objects of interest. In essence, current technology developments are concentrated on improving the performance of object assessment fusion engines (algorithms). Object assessment (level 1 fusion) is defined as the estimation and prediction of entity states based on observation-to-track association, continuous state estimation (e.g. kinematics) and discrete state estimation (e.g. object type and identification). However, over the last several years, a number of technologies have been introduced which attempt to perform situation assessment fusion. Situational assessment (level 2 fusion) is defined as the estimation and prediction of relations among entities, to include force structure and cross force relations, communications, and perceptual influences, and physical context, etc. Situational assessment is the process of providing understanding to a decision-maker about a situation, including people, objects, and events. In order for sensor resource management to be truly successful, it must be able to allocate sensors and sensor platforms to detect tactically significant activities, i.e. situation awareness. Examples of tactically significant activities for the environmental area could be possible events and sources for nuclear, biological, or chemical incidents, locations of high occurrences for earthquakes, floods, natural disasters for the geographical area, potential terrorist targets for the homeland defense area, and typical locations and types of viral disease outbreaks for the medical arena. Detection of tactically significant activities for the war fighter could be bridge crossings, engineering battalion activities, traffic flow analysis, lines of communications, and identification of military units like theater ballistic missile battalions, etc. This effort shall seek to advance the state-of-the-art by extending the sensor resource management paradigm by creating sensor control policies optimized for meeting the information requirements of a situational assessment module. Sensor types that need to be included are Radar (Ground moving target indicator, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), inverse SAR, Environmental Situation Assessment Radar (ESAR)), Signal Intelligence and Imagery Intelligence platforms. PHASE I: Develop and demonstrate a prototypical system for using the information requirements of a Situational Assessment fusion engine as the means for computing optimal sensor policies. The Situational Assessment module can be developed or integrated under this SBIR with the sensor management module. PHASE II: Continue system development. Demonstrate system against an extended set of situations. Characterize system performance. Extend the systems to support multiple domains (areas) and other sensor types. DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION: The technology that will be developed under this program will be directly applicable to advanced sensor systems such as those being developed for environmental, geographical, meteorological and medical applications as well as for the warfighter in providing an improve picture of the battlespace. 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