ARMY SBIR 18.1 Topic Descriptions

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Air Platform

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 5.4.c.(8) of the Announcement.

OBJECTIVE: Develop air platform occupant safety improvements to prevent injury or fatality within the constraints associated with legacy air vehicles. The focus is to prevent the vehicle occupants from striking interior hard points, such as the control stick or aircraft structure, during a crash or hard landing.

DESCRIPTION: Current Military Helicopters and Fixed Wing Aircraft use occupant safety systems based on older technologies. These older systems may not always adequately address occupant extreme movement during crash or hard landings. Innovations are sought to reduce the negative effects of occupant shoulder and head pitchout during a crash. This pitchout can allow the occupants head or upper torso to strike hard interior areas that cannot be padded or protected. The intense contact forces can result in crippling injury or fatality.

The need operate with legacy aircraft systems present a number of challenges. The ideal system must assimilate into the vehicle without the need for a form, fit, or function modification to any other part of the aircraft. The system must operate without any need for aircraft power or other interactions. Added weight is a concern. The system should not add more than one pound of aircraft weight per occupant. The innovation should be unobtrusive, easy to operate, and be comfortable for the user.

The innovation should reduce the negative outcome of occupant head and shoulder pitch out away from the seatback, when compared to the aircraft legacy system, during a crash event. This reduction in negative consequence should be verified in a dynamic crash testing. The innovation should accommodate all flight crew anthropomorphic sizes and weights. The innovation should be unobtrusive for crew use and not require any additional human interaction from the crew or other personnel, to use. The innovation should not complicate maintenance or servicing of the aircraft.

PHASE I: Perform a design study to support of the development of a system that will integrate seamlessly with existing crash worthy aircraft systems on rotary wing and fixed wing military aircraft. Conduct an assessment of appropriate technologies which may be utilized to build, integrate, and test a system to meet the challenges listed above. Perform a trade-off analysis to determine the best approach for a system. Fully develop a preliminary engineering design.

PHASE II: Develop an initial prototype for evaluation and comment by aircrews and safety experts. Enhance the initial prototype into a high fidelity advanced system that will allow fit check, testing, qualification, and retrofit into selected aircraft crashworthy seat systems. Demonstrate the capability of the advanced system to perform better than legacy components. The capability demonstration will be by testing in crash environment similar to those in MIL-R- 58095A or SAE 8049. Verify aircraft suitability by testing to MIL-STD-810 or FAA TSO 8043 requirements for safe to fly status on selected aircraft.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The innovation developed under this topic can be offered as a tested and qualified solution to improve crash safety across military and FAA aircraft. The expectation is that government and civilian aircraft program office, design centers, and manufactures would procure this innovation to support their production systems.

REFERENCES:

1. MIL-R-58095A, Seat System: Crash-Resistant, Non-Ejection, Aircrew, General Specification For

2. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 208, Occupant Crash protection

3. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 209, Seat Belt Assemblies

4. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 210, Seat Belt Assembly Anchorages

5. Federal Aviation Administration Technical Standard Order (FAA TSO)-C22g, Safety Belts

6. Federal Aviation Administration Technical Standard Order (FAA TSO)-C114, Torso Restraint Systems

7. Federal Aviation Administration Technical Standard Order (FAA TSO)-C127, Rotorcraft, Transport Airplane, and Small Airplane Seating Systems

8. Federal Aviation Administration Technical Standard Order (FAA TSO)-C39, Aircraft Seats and Berths

9. Society of Automotive Engineers Aerospace Standard (SAE AS) 8043, Torso Restraint Systems

10. Society of Automotive Engineers Aerospace Standard (SAE AS) 8049, Performance Standard for Seats in Civil Rotorcraft and Transport Airplanes

KEYWORDS: safety, crashworthy, occupant protection

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Air Platform

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 5.4.c.(8) of the Announcement.

OBJECTIVE: Develop an image processing system capable of applying exploitation algorithms using high-rate (generally low resolution) raw sensor data to improve sensor performance for improved aircrew situational awareness.

DESCRIPTION: There is an existing need for greater Situational Awareness (SA) for the aircrew of today’s Army rotorcraft fleet. In 2009 a study on Rotorcraft Survivability Summary Report was requested by Congress. The report focused on losses occurring during the Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) timeframe to help understand the high loss rate per 100,000 flight hours during 2001-2008 time frame and help provide solutions relevant to current and future DoD vertical lift aircraft. The loss of SA and other human factors accounted for 75 percent, which accounts for 245 rotary wing losses out of 327. Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) including object/wire strike, and degraded visual environment (DVE) were the leading non-materiel causes of loss of airframe. CFIT including weather awareness and object/wire strike was the leading non-materiel causes of fatalities. Military rotorcraft missions routinely fly in close proximity to stationary and mobile hazards and at times the aircrew has to fly in a DVE environment. The aircrew has to maintain a continuous awareness of both static and dynamic elements around the aircraft and along its flight path. At present no systems have been fielded to provide look-down and look-behind capabilities to the pilots and aircrew, even though these sectors of the aircraft are ‘blind spots’. Additionally, future vertical lift platforms will be required to provide 360º spherical awareness around the aircraft. Currently, if coverage is to be provided in these traditional blind spots the installation of additional sensors would be required. This comes at the cost of weight associated with the additional sensors, as well as the monetary costs associated with the equipment, installation, and qualification of the additional hardware.

It is envisioned that future platforms will require the integration of multiple functionalities into fewer sensors, as opposed to the current federated model where each sensor has a single, specific function. A number of the sensors that each aircraft is equipped with are a part of the Aircraft Survivability Equipment (ASE) package. Many of these sensors are lower resolution imagers sensitive in different spectra, and are sampling at higher rates than traditional video sensors (400-1000Hz). Since these sensors are typically lower resolution in order to achieve the high frame rates, the application of exploitation algorithms to these video streams could provide additional views around the aircraft at a greater effective resolution than the sensor inherently provides. The ASE sensors are oriented and installed to provide maximum coverage around the aircraft, and providing views from these sensors would help to eliminate existing blind spots. It is anticipated that future systems would utilize more modern imagers capable of high frame rate acquisition at greater resolutions.

The intent of this program is to provide the capability to tap the raw data stream from a high-speed video sensor, provide the video to advanced image processing tasks at rates specified by the tasks, and apply exploitation algorithms techniques to enhance the visual acuity of the imaging sensors for aircrew Situational Awareness. Supper Resolution is an example of an exploitation algorithm that has been a proven technic on static images to increase image resolution. This approach has not been applied to video data stream in Near Real-Time. The exploitation algorithm(s) developed should be capable of being hosted on small, lightweight, and standalone system capable of processing the data using contractor selected equipment to help increase the effective resolution. Exploitation algorithms video output should provide a refresh rate of 30 Hz minimum with 40ms of latency from time of frame capture. Minimum output specification should be NTSC compatible, with provisions for High-Definition 720p and 1080p outputs. In the near term we are seeking a standalone processor that can provide the describe capability. Initial proof of concept can utilize an imager of the contractors choosing so long as it samples at a rate of 1000Hz and a resolution greater than or equal to 640x480. The future system should be capable of being hosted on generic processing systems, this would drive the solution towards advanced algorithms that utilize contractor selected hardware and architectures, and should be capable of performing so long as there is adequate processor capacity for the task.

PHASE I: Demonstrate exploitation algorithms, select methodology for providing required output, preliminary design of architecture and select representative hardware. Perform proof of concept for algorithms utilizing contractor selected hardware (such as PCs) and surrogate sample video.

PHASE II: TRL5 – Provide a standalone system capable of processing the data from a contractor-selected FPA acquiring a field size of 640x480 pixels or greater and is sampling at 1000 Hz. The contractor should demonstrate an increase in effective resolution for the sensor and quantify the processing times and latency values inherent to the system.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Work to integrate system with existing Ground Fire Indication, Hostile Fire Indication, or other Aircraft Survivability Equipment to create additional video streams available to the aircrew for expanded Situational Awareness and survivability. Transition to future 6.3 efforts for example Holistic Situational Awareness - Decision Making (HSA-DM), transition to current and future ARMY fleet.

REFERENCES:

1. Study On Rotorcraft Survivability Summary Report, September 2009, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology & Logistics) Washington DC, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superresolution , Amr Hussein Yousef; Jiang Li and Mohammad Karim

2. "On the visual quality enhancement of super-resolution images", Proc. SPIE 8135, Applications of Digital Image Processing XXXIV, 81350Z (September 23, 2011); doi:10.1117/12.889291;

3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.889291

4. http://pages.swcp.com/~spsvs/resume/ESVS_DSS2008_2008-02-11.pdf

KEYWORDS: Super Resolution (SR), Situational Awareness (SA), Rotorcraft Survivability, Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT), Degraded Visual Environment (DVE), 360 Spherical Awareness, Aircraft Survivability Equipment (ASE), commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS), and Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Electronics

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 5.4.c.(8) of the Announcement.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this program is to design and develop the key network components of a fiber optics based open systems architecture based network for military rotorcraft that will support the integration and qualification of current and future high bandwidth real-time (and near real time) mission systems.

DESCRIPTION: Optical based interconnects have been used effectively for years in the telecommunications industry and commercial aircraft and are beginning to be applied to some fixed-wing military aircraft. Currently the commercial aviation systems uses fiber optics for non flight or critical components. On large aircraft (Boeing and Airbus airliners), fiber optics and photonics are implemented but do not have the size, weight, power, and cooling constraints that exist on smaller rotorcraft. In addition these aircraft do not have the environmental and safety qualifications requirements for mission systems on military rotorcraft. The environment encountered (especially vibration) on military rotorcraft is more severe than that found in these other applications which limits the applicability of certain of the technologies. Conditions where maintenance is performed is potentially much more austere than where fixed-wing operations occur which thereby demands a more robust approach to repair and diagnosis of faulty equipment as well. Cost is also more of a factor when considering application to Army helicopters than it is to high performance fixed wing aircraft. The DoD rotorcraft community has been investigating solutions to many of these issues through development of more durable technologies and repair techniques, but as yet has not been able to field photonics due to the risks involved.

Offerors should consider numerous characteristics of the network and components (transceiver and I/O cards). The network should be scalable and secure and be able to handle multiple levels of secure information as the aircraft will need to interface with Joint and Coalition Forces as well as civil entities. The network should have simplified management functions to ease in the upgradability of the system. The backbone network should offer a SWAP (Size Weight and Power) improvement over current copper based architectures. The fiber optics network should be a fault tolerant architecture and should offer redundancy and reliability improvements over current systems. The network can use Wavelength Division Multiplexing or other network methodologies. The solution should use commercially supported standards. Current components are to large and do not meet the full suite of required shock and vibration testing as described in MIL-STD-810F. The components developed under the Phase 1 or Phase 11 of this proposal will not need to pass full MIL-STD-461E and MIL-STD-810F testing environments, however, they will need to be able to address the shock and vibration profiles that may be encountered on Army Aviation platforms. The components should be developed with a plan to eventually address Army Aviation airworthiness concerns.

PHASE I: The contractor will conduct a feasibility study and identify and/or design the key components (transceiver, I/O cards for current and future LRU's). The focus of this effort should be for high-bandwidth real-time (or near real-time) sensor data to include: potential LIDAR data, HD sensors, off-board streaming video, compressed and un-compressed video feeds, Radio Frequency (RF) Sensors, EO/IR sensor balls, Distributed Aperture Sensors, data links (SATCOM, TCDL, etc.), Millimeter Wave Radars, helmet mounted displays, 3-D visualization technologies, advanced displays, and other not yet realized capabilities. Each of these sources of data can start as low as 1-2 Mbps and reach data rates up to 8 Gbps. The network components will need to be able to handle data rates between 10-20 Gbps. Since many systems are used for real time situational awareness. Latency of less then 0.1ms would be ideal (with a goal to reach <5 microseconds.

The contractor will ensure that it meets the performance and SWAP requirements for the chosen systems and the intended platform. The offeror should identify key components of the desired infrastructure. The proposed architecture implementation should be scalable. Required deliverables will include a conceptual network design and recommendations for future technology investment. The contractor may propose a proof of concept demo of any single component.

PHASE II: The contractor will perform a detailed design of the components and integration into an aviation mission processing architecture. The contractor will draft test plans and procedures, fabricate prototype components, and test the prototype system and procedures in a relevant operating environment. All components within this network should be on a development path to meet the qualification standards required by the Army. The components will NOT need to meet a full airworthiness qualification package. The contractor will also verify the scalability of the system by demonstrating a scenario whereby there are a minimal number of connections and the network grows to a number which represents a considerable implementation of a back-bone architecture. The ability to perform Built in Test and/or fault detection is a desirement of the final solution. The offeror will validate the design and implementation approach.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The contractor will demonstrate potential application of the component(s) developed as part of a notional backbone network to other DoD aviation and ground weapon systems and to commercial aviation. Potential customers of this system will be both rotorcraft and fixed wing aviation for both military and commercial applications. The commercial aviation industry (helicopters and fixed wing will be key users of the technology). In addition there are many ground based platforms within the US Army and Marines that require high-bandwidth, real time information exchange that could utilize the technologies. The US Navy could utilize the technologies developed on ships and boats and this could transition to the commercial maritime market as well.

REFERENCES:

1. FACE (www.opengroup.com/face)

2. Hardware Open Systems Technology (HOST) Tier 1 and Tier 2 standards. (this is an ongoing development effort within NAVAIR and contracted with GTRI. Information is available and approved for public release also see VITA website)

3. MIL-STD-461E

4. MIL-STD-810F

5. MIL-STD-1678 (Fiber optic cabling requirements)

6. MIL-PRF-49291/1B (Fiber requirements)

7. The DARPA Network Enabled Wavelength Division Multiplexing - Highly Integrated Photonics (NEW-HIP) program.

8. Ongoing Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) initiative.

9. Joint Fiber Optic Working Group (JFOWG) (http://www.navair.navy.mil/jswag/default.htm)

KEYWORDS: optical backbone, network, open systems

A18-004

TITLE: Data Refinement and Reduction for Aviation Sustainment

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Information Systems

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 5.4.c.(8) of the Announcement.

OBJECTIVE: Develop advanced statistical techniques and processes to correlate multiple pieces of evidence regarding failure occurrence, root cause analysis, and corrective action implementation in aviation sustainment. The refined data should improve the utility of sustainment tools, algorithms, and models by limiting the introduction of noise from source data.

DESCRIPTION: Currently, the Army uses several engineering and logistic algorithms and models that are comprised of multiple sourced data sets, including 13-1 (logbook data), Maintenance Allocation Charts (MAC Charts), 1352 (readiness reporting), and 2410 (part tracking). These data sets come from the field and contain both scattered and erroneous data. The HUMS, Prognostics, and Readiness algorithms and models have not fully produced the expected benefits for useful data for application. In an attempt to provide actionable analytics, the algorithm and model developers have increased the amount of source data with an expectation that there will be an increased algorithm and model utility. Instead of refining the data, there is an assumption that feeding an algorithm or model an increased amount of data will result in a stronger analytical tool. However, as developers absorb additional data into the data set, more noise is introduced into the algorithm. Innovations are sought to develop and apply new methodologies and statistical techniques to refine source data prior to the integration into algorithms and models.

The Army has several logistic and maintenance data sources that can be used for analysis; however, these data sources point in different directions, yielding various results. The need to provide analytics using multiple sources present a number of challenges. The innovation should include ways to optimize data generated from multiple resources. Many applications within the Army have a limited sample size, and data may not be large enough to provide complexity to certain algorithms. The innovation should provide solutions that address limited sample size, and how to maximize analytics of a small sample size. The Army continues to upgrade and modernize different components to better suit the warfighter. The innovation should be customizable; for example, in Army aviation, altering dates, aircraft, or units for analysis can be used to understand the impact of modifications.

The innovation should reduce the noise that is introduced with data; therefore providing clean, relevant, and useful data sets that will increase both timeliness and effectiveness of analytical tools, algorithms, and models. Noisy data can be caused from a range of errors, as large as unconfirmed hardware failures to minute discrepancies including abbreviation errors. By reducing the noise, the signal-to-noise ratio is increased; therefore, improving confidence in actionable impact decisions. The innovation should apply methods that will refine data without disturbing the integrity of the data.

PHASE I: Perform a design study to support the development of a data refinery. Conduct an assessment of appropriate methodologies and statistical techniques and processes which may be used to apply, build, and integrate a system to meet the challenges listed above. The offeror should produce techniques and processes for evaluation by technical experts. This Phase will demonstrate the feasibility of producing techniques for a data refinery, and will outline verification demonstration criteria.