Department of the navy (don) 17. 1 Small Business Innovation Research (sbir) Proposal Submission Instructions introduction

Mission critical information can be gained from a sensitive acoustic listening device on an unmanned vessel. The prime range of regard for acoustic listening is approximately one mile out from a small vessel, 360 degrees in azimuth. A solution may increase the situational awareness and provide safer navigation of the unmanned vehicle by successful identification, classification and localization of a sound source.

This topic seeks to develop an innovative solution for an acoustic perception system that will aid in the detection and characterization of typical maritime sounds. The solution should mimic similar sound isolation, differentiation, and localization capabilities inherently found in the human ear and auditory cortex. The solution should be able to help identify the direction and generalize the location of sound sources; provide notification to a remote operator; and, in the future, cue the on-board autonomy system. This system should identify the frequency, duration, and intensity of audible maritime sound sources. The audio perception system should have an on-board processing capability to filter extraneous noise caused by the environment and own-ship operations.

The final acoustic perception system should be packaged in a compact footprint, be light weight and power efficient such that it minimizes space, weight and power impact of the vessel. All internal and external hardware components of the audio perception system must be able to withstand harsh maritime environments with respect to water ingress, and single and repetitive wave slammed induced accelerations.

General:
Electromagnetic Interference: ISO 11452
Power (maximum): 24VDC, 30 amps

Topside Components:

Moisture: Watertight to IP67

Temperature: -4 to 110 degree Fahrenheit Shock, Single Event: 10gs sawtooth for 23ms on the vertical and two horizontal axes Shock, Repetitive: 800 repetitive shocks at 3Gs sawtooth for 23ms on the vertical and two horizontal axes.

Weight (maximum): 20 pounds

Volume (maximum): 2 cubic feet

Moisture: Water resistant to IP65

Temperature: -4 to 154 degree Fahrenheit Shock, Single Event: 10gs sawtooth for 23ms on the vertical and two horizontal axes Shock, Repetitive: 800 repetitive shocks at 3Gs sawtooth for 23ms on the vertical and two horizontal axes.

Weight (maximum): 10 pounds

Volume (maximum): 2 cubic feet

The system should utilize distributed data storage architecture, and adhere to commercially accepted, standard, non-proprietary interfaces and software protocols. The operator should be able to easily adjust auditory levels and sensitivity while controlling the system remotely through the user interface.

The operator should have the ability to focus the acoustic detection device (such as a microphone) to a particular area, isolate the sound(s), and receive a transmission of the signal in near real-time. The current state and health status of the system should be able to be monitored remotely by one or more operators. Continuous and on-command feedback transmitted to the operator should be primarily auditory, but have secondary visual cuing options available to support loud environments. These enhancements to acoustic perception would afford an enhanced operator “look-out” capability to fully appraise the remote situation and take appropriate action when necessary.

An automated audio detection system has the ability to reduce the likelihood of a collision mishap by providing additional lookout capability. Maritime sounds are integral for safe navigation and communicating with other vessels in restricted visibility conditions. Such technology also supports reduced manning and cognitive workload through use of an automated detector.

PHASE I: Develop a concept feasible for automated airborne acoustic detection and identification. Required Phase I deliverables will be a preliminary conceptual technical performance specification and design description including risk areas and possible mitigations. The Phase I Option, if awarded, will refine the concept to a detailed design producing a technical specification, drawings, performance goals and risks.

PHASE II: Based on the Phase I results and the Phase II Statement of Work (SOW), a prototype version of the Automatic Acoustic Detection and Identification system shall be fabricated, demonstrated, and delivered. The system shall be tested to compare performance to design values. Phase II Option I, if necessary and if awarded, shall allow the refinement of the design to improve any size, weight, hardening, and performance issues noted in the Phase II base testing. The new design shall be built and tested to verify design objectives. Testing in both Phase II and Phase II Option II shall be conducted underway on the water in an operationally relevant environment.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The company will be expected to support the Navy in transitioning the Automatic Acoustic Detection and Identification technology for Navy and potential commercial use. Phase III shall focus on the transition to the Unmanned Influence Sweep System and the Common USV development program that are being managed by PMS 406. It is expected that the final system will consist of the sensors and processing software that will allow the incorporation into these systems. This product would also be available to be incorporated into integrated bridge systems. Private Sector Commercial Potential: Both military and commercial manned vessels with enclosed bridges can benefit from this technology. Being in an enclosed bridge decreases a mariner’s ability to hear navigational signals and be aware of audible sounds, which may be mission critical. During reduced manning operations, this sensory deprivation is amplified due to cognitive workload. This acoustic perception system can augment the use and efficiency of typical camera systems installed on-board unmanned vessels. Instead of a slow sweeping motion, the camera can be controlled to automatically focus on audible signals or unidentifiable audible object sounds (such as engine noise of an approaching vessel, nearby explosions or gunfire) that could be undetectable on radar.

REFERENCES:

1. COMDTINST M16672.2D, Navigation Rules, International – Inland, U.S. Department of Transportation, United States Coast Guard. http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/navrules/comdtinst_m16672_2d_navrules_as_published.pdf

2. American Technology Corporation. “Long Range Acoustic Device.” Defense Update, Issue 1, 2005. http://defense-update.com/products/l/LRAD.htm.

3. Rudd, K. and Hinders, M. “Simulation of Incident Nonlinear Sound Beam 3D Scattering from Complex Targets.” J. Computational Acoustics, Vol 16, #3, 2008, pp. 427-445.

4. The Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) – ACAT III SRD Rev. A (Dated 03 JUN 2014)

5. NSW C2 09-04 Improved SA for NSW Operators, NSW ISR 09-06 and NECC BA ISR 2.1-5 Specific Entity Identification provide documented needs for this capability.

KEYWORDS: Maritime Airborne Acoustic Detection Systems; Sound Detection, Identification and Localization; Maritime Situational Awareness for USVs; Automated sound processing and detection algorithms; USV Collision and Avoidance Systems; shipboard acoustic navigation sensors

Questions may also be submitted through DoD SBIR/STTR SITIS website.

N171-054

TITLE: Cyber Threat Insertion and Evaluation Technology for Navy Ship Control Systems

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Ground/Sea Vehicles, Information Systems

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PEO Ships AM, Acquisition Management

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 5.4.c.(8) 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.

OBJECTIVE: Develop a system to evaluate the effectiveness of cyber defense technology for Navy ship control systems.

DESCRIPTION: The Navy needs to test the effectiveness of cyber defense methodologies for embedded devices, assess the benefit of different combinations of defense methods, develop the capability to inject classes of cyber vulnerabilities onto the device under test and have the capability to do this quickly and in a controlled test environment.

The software that embodies the logic of a process controller or closed loop control system typically deployed on an embedded system such as a programmable logic controller represents a very small percentage of the actual software that is running on a device. The rest of the software is in the operating system and firmware that allows the device to bootstrap it and to interpret the logic that the control system developer deploys on the device. This software is typically identical from device to device. Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) hardware devices are often used in military designs to incur cost savings and benefit from established logistical support and supply chains. A drawback to this acquisition method is that an adversary can procure the same devices and reverse engineer them in order to develop attacks against military systems. As a result, a growing number of host-based cyber protection/defense products, methods, and techniques are being developed. It is understood that no one product, method, or technique will be the silver bullet that defends against all classes of attacks. Some defenses rely on the effectiveness of an intrusion detection method, often employing the strategy of slowing the adversary down, or causing the adversary to have to compute more than he otherwise would have based on the theory that this will make the adversary noisier and easier to detect.

The desired product of this effort shall enable the introduction of Trojan-like code at multiple entry points during design coding and lay out of a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The product shall have the capability to allow the user to specify the number of affected gates and specify the location of Trojan code on FPGA and in addition, allow code to be randomly placed on the FPGA.

The Navy seeks to develop an appliance (combined hardware and software solution) that will allow testers to quickly and easily make changes in the operating system and firmware of embedded devices so that they can effectively run a large number of test cases using different combinations of defense methodologies. The initial target platform will be an FPGA or a combination of FPGAs with microprocessors.

The Phase II effort will likely require secure access, and NAVSEA will process the DD254 to support the contractor for personnel and facility certification for secure access.  The Phase I effort will not require access to classified information.  If need be, data of the same level of complexity as secured data will be provided to support Phase I work.

PHASE I: The company will develop a concept for Cyber Threat Insertion and Evaluation Technology for Naval Applications that meet the requirements described above. The company will demonstrate the feasibility of the concept in meeting Navy needs and will establish that the concept can be developed into a useful product for the Navy. Feasibility will be established by prototyping and analytical modeling. The Phase I Option, if awarded, will include the initial design specifications and capabilities description to build a prototype in Phase II; will address technical risk reduction; and will provide performance goals and key technical milestones.

PHASE II: Based on the results of Phase I and the Phase II Statement of Work (SOW), the small business will develop and deliver a Cyber Threat Insertion and Evaluation Technology for Navy Ship Control Systems prototype for evaluation. The prototype will be evaluated to determine its capability in meeting the performance goals defined in the Phase II SOW for Cyber Threat Insertion and Evaluation Technology. System performance will be demonstrated through prototype evaluation over the required range of parameters to be defined in the Phase II SOW. Evaluation results will be used to refine the prototype into an initial design that will meet Navy requirements. The small business will assess integration and risk and develop a Software Development Plan (SDP). The company will prepare a Phase III development plan to transition the technology to Navy use in current and future navy shipboard machinery control systems and also potential commercial use.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The company will be expected to support the Navy in transitioning the technology for Navy use in current and future navy shipboard machinery control systems. The company will further refine Cyber Threat Insertion and Evaluation Technology according to the Phase II SOW for evaluation to determine its effectiveness in an operationally relevant environment. The company will support the Navy for test and validation to certify and qualify the system for Navy use. Private Sector Commercial Potential: This topic will be applicable across all government control systems on any platform. Cyber defense technologies are universally applicable within the designed technical framework and will benefit industry, government, and academia alike.

REFERENCES:

1. Kumar, Raghavan; Jovanovic, Philipp; Burleson, Wayne; Polian, Ilia “Parametric Trojans for Fault-Injection Attacks on Cryptographic Hardware”. Cryptology ePrint Archive, 2014 University of Massachusetts Amherst, 01002, USA, University of Passau, 94032,

2. Dunning, JP “.ronin”, “Building Trojan Hardware at Home” BlackHat Asia 2014 https://www.blackhat.com/docs/asia-14/materials/Dunning/Asia-14-Dunning-Building-Trojan-Hardware-At-Home.pdf

3. Sreedhar, Aswin, Kundu, Sandip, and Koren, Israel, “On Reliability Trojan Injection and Detection”, Journal of Low Power Electronics, Vol. 8, 1–10, 2012, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA http://euler.ecs.umass.edu/research/skk-jolpe-2012.pdf-

KEYWORDS: Cyber threat; cyber intrusion; Cyber virus injection; firmware security; host based protection; operating system security; software code security; protection against Trojan viruses.

Questions may also be submitted through DoD SBIR/STTR SITIS website.

N171-055

TITLE: Methods for Measuring an Acoustic Array’s Straightness and for Autonomous Mechanical Straightening to Avoid Contact with Sea Bottom Under All Operational Conditions

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Battlespace, Electronics, Sensors

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMS 485, Maritime Surveillance Systems Program Office

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 5.4.c.(8) 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.

OBJECTIVE: Develop methods for measuring an acoustic array’s straightness and enabling the array to autonomously straighten itself mechanically while avoiding contact with the sea bottom under all operational conditions.

DESCRIPTION: The Navy towed arrays, such as those used by Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS) ships, are flexible, neutrally buoyant tubes with a length of approximately 1500 feet. Similarly, ocean researchers and oil explorers use towed arrays to collect acoustic data needed in their science fields. Arrays are not directly attached to the ship, but are towed at the end of cables that are thousands of feet long. The depth of an array is mechanically adjustable in order to situate it optimally for acoustic surveillance performance, typically 150 to 300 feet deep. However, the array is subject to “drooping “on the far end as ship velocities decrease and to bending and turning due to currents. Consequently, the array’s acoustic performance is degraded, since array sensors are not in a perfectly straight line. Additionally, it is possible for the array to be inadvertently dragged on the ocean bottom when being towed at slow speeds (or halted completely), which can cause physical damage. A persistent performance shortfall is caused by the fact that a purely passively operated towed array that is thousands of feet long and deployed in the open ocean is not going to be as linear as is required to achieve the expected performance from beamforming and acoustic data processing. The prevention of array entanglement and severe damage in shallow water could save up to $8M per incident.

The innovation needed is a concept for a next-generation array to autonomously straighten linearly to within +/- two feet of center on each axis and protect itself from bottom damage (due to an unplanned stoppage in tow operations or ship navigation into shallow water) without intervention from an operator. In principle, to accomplish this functionality, it will be necessary for the array to have positional sensors distributed throughout its length and one or more mechanical devices capable of forming the array into a straight position. The implementation of this function must not significantly decrease the acoustic performance of the array (such as add self-noise or insert mechanical sounds while operating) nor increase physical vulnerabilities to fishing nets or long-lines. The array will need to be autonomously aware of its closest distance from the bottom and have mechanical devices capable of reducing its depth (by increasing buoyancy) when it is close to a collision with the seabed. Technologies needed include sensors for measuring straightness and proximity to the ocean bottom; a straightening algorithm (potentially utilizing artificial intelligence); electro-mechanical devices capable of steering the moving array; and mechanical devices capable of making the array (or portions of the array) positively buoyant. The transition of the resulting technology will be in the form of hardware modules, software, and/or intellectual property that will be integrated into the current or next-generation SURTASS array production line by the prime contractor.

PHASE I: The company will develop a concept and demonstrate feasibility for a preliminary design to implement array straightening and bottom avoidance functionality, including mechanical, electronic, and software components. Modeling tools will be utilized to develop initial algorithms for straightening and bottom avoidance, in accordance with the specifications cited in the “DESCRIPTION” section above. The operation of the system will be demonstrated in a variety of potential ocean environments and for ship movements using modeling tools. The company will build and demonstrate components or sub-components of the system if needed to validate the accuracy of the model. The Phase I Option, if awarded, will include the initial design specifications and capabilities description to build a prototype in Phase II.

PHASE II: Based on the Phase I results and the Phase II Statement of Work (SOW), the company will refine the Phase I design and algorithms. The company will develop and construct a working model of a surrogate array (without acoustic sensors) and validate that it operates in accordance with the model in a laboratory environment. The prototype will be demonstrated in water. The company will document the hardware and software design. A prototype will be delivered at the end of Phase II. The company will prepare a Phase III development plan to transition the technology for Navy and potential commercial use.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The company will be expected to support the Navy in transitioning the technology to Navy use. It will be expected to further refine a complete next-generation acoustic array for SURTASS ships and support the transition of the technology and design to another firm engaged as the prime contractor for the complete array. The company will implement the developed hardware and software to suit the operation of the acoustic array and support testing in laboratory and ocean environments to meet requirements for functionality, environmental extremes, reliability, safety, and other requirements to certify the system for Navy use. Operational testing will be supported by the Navy Fleet. The company can be expected to produce the complete array, array sub-system, or array components to support production of five arrays for the SURTASS fleet. Private Sector Commercial Potential: Other Navy platforms (ships and submarines), the oil exploration industry, and ocean scientists use similar acoustic arrays. Successful execution of the described capabilities would benefit all of these other users for similar reasons.

REFERENCES:

1. Kitchens, J. P. “Acoustic Vector-Sensor Array Processing.” PHD Thesis, MIT 2010. URL last accessed 29 February 2016: http://www.rle.mit.edu/dspg/documents/kitchens_phd_eecs_2010.pdf.

2. Fidanboylu, K.A and Efendioglu, H. S. “Fiber Optic Sensors and Their Applications.” 5th International Advanced Technologies Symposium (IATS ’09), May 13-15, 2009. pp: 1-6. URL last accessed 29 February 2016: http://iats09.karabuk.edu.tr/press/pro/02_KeynoteAddress.pdf.

3. Rand, R.H. and Ramani, D.V. “Theoretical Study of a Submarine Towed-Array Lifting Device.” URL last accessed 29 February 2016: http://audiophile.tam.cornell.edu/randpdf/qdmathu1.pdf.-

KEYWORDS: Towed array; sonar; undersea acoustics; acoustic surveillance; ocean systems; buoyancy.

Questions may also be submitted through DoD SBIR/STTR SITIS website.

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Information Systems

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS) 1.0 – AEGIS Combat System; PEO IWS 10.0 – Ship Self Defense System (SSDS) Integrated Combat System

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 5.4.c.(8) 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.