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

Full implementation of mixed reality for maintenance and trouble-shooting applications could be used to introduce trainees to critical systems and tasks in a number of domains, and to provide interactive job-aiding in the field. The Naval Education and Training Command, as part of Sailor 2025, envisions interactive training with a large number of ship systems freed from the expense of realistic mock-ups. This SBIR would provide much needed pedagogical models for Mixed Reality training that could alter how naval maintenance training is conducted now in the future.

PHASE I: Describe a plan to develop and validate pedagogical models for training maintenance procedures and troubleshooting in mixed reality (MR) environments. Maintenance and troubleshooting procedures are contained in the technical manuals for various Navy equipment and will be provided as GFE to the performer. The end product of this phase is a report that describes the approach to be used to develop and validate these pedagogical models, including metrics to be used to determine their effectiveness and guide lines and heuristics that will be used to design these models. The report will also describe a Phase II approach to achieve the desired result/product and key component technological milestones. The Phase I option should also include a plan for the processing and submission of any necessary human subjects research protocols for Phase II research.

PHASE II: Develop a prototype based on Phase I efforts and demonstrate a proof-of-concept for training maintenance procedures and troubleshooting in mixed reality (MR) environments. The demonstration will be used to select the best approach from Phase I-type effort into the software tool. The performer shall provide a data collection plan that, includes the number and type of subjects, control condition, assessment instruments and analysis plan.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The small business will be expected to support the Navy in transitioning a set of software tools for its intended use. The small business will be expected to develop a plan to transition and commercialize the software and its associated guidelines and principles. Private Sector Commercial Potential: This SBIR would provide much needed pedagogical models for Mixed Reality training that could alter how naval maintenance training is conducted now in the future. In addition to the military market, the technology could have broad applicability in technical training and education, consumer products, and developers of augmented and virtual reality systems.

REFERENCES:

1. Kirkpatrick, D. L. (1994) Evaluating Training Programs: The four levels. Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco.

2. Phillips, J.J., (2003). Return on investment and performance improvement programs. 2nd Edition. Butterworth-Heinemann, Burlington, MA.

3. Stanney, K., Samman, S., Reeves, L., Hale, K., Buff, W., Bowers, C., Goldiez, B., Nicholson, D., & Lackey, S. (2004). A paradigm shift in interactive computing: deriving multimodal design principles from behavioral and neurological foundations. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 17(2), 229-257.

4. Perez.R.S ( 2013) . Foreward. In Special Issue of Military Medicine: International Journal of AMUS. Guest Editors, Harold F. O'Neil, Kevin Kunkler, Karl E. Friedl, & RS. Perez. 178,10,16-36.

5. Skinner et al., (2010) Chapter in Special Issue of Military Medicine: International Journal of AMUS. Guest Editors, Harold F. O'Neil, Kevin Kunkler, Karl E. Friedl, & RS. Perez. 178,10,16-36. -

KEYWORDS: Mixed reality; Immersive Environments; Training; Augmented Reality; Virtual Reality; and Design Guidelines

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

N171-093

TITLE: Theater Anti-Submarine Warfare Contextual Reasoning

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Battlespace, Information Systems, Sensors

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Theater Anti-Submarine Warfare Battle Management Tool FNC

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: To develop and demonstrate an expert system capable of applying contextual clues from theater anti-submarine data sources to evaluate the probable current and near term actions of threat submarines.

DESCRIPTION: In order to effectively plan for theater anti-submarine warfare missions, it is necessary to infer future actions and intentions based on sparse contact data informed by the current state of the world. Factors such as weather, acoustic conditions, geographic or oceanographic features, recent hostilities or tensions, or third party activities can color the conclusions that can be drawn from the set of contact observations. These issues are complicated by the occasions of false or poorly defined detections that can reduce confidence or create ambiguity in the data reports. The ideal solution is a decision engine that can be used to inform Bayesian tracking solutions in a theater Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) geo-situational picture. No automatic tools currently exist for assessing theater-wide ASW situations, however the state of the art in information fusion includes numerous expert systems that predict future conditions based on context clues and historical trends. Applications of these techniques range from computer virus detection, medical diagnostics, and motion prediction for driver-less automobiles. Developers should apply or invent similar technology that results in an expert system software solution capable of using contextual clues to refine or constrain the estimated state of a submarine target. This software will be as part of a larger multi-platform search planning decision aid, but should be capable of being developed and tested independently prior to integration.

PHASE I: Develop a concept for a context-sensitive expert system software application that places meaningful bounds on expected target states over wide areas, and also defines the characteristic inputs required to achieve it. The Phase I results should demonstrate that the results can reduce the area of uncertainty of sparsely observed targets, i.e. incomplete target states measured at less than or equal to 4 times/day. Contextual information including (but not limited to) weather predictions, bathymetric limitations, historical movements, expected mission objectives, and the state of hostilities should be considered. A fictional theater of war should be assumed, but with environmental conditions consistent with some real-world area. The Phase I report should fully describe the approach and its method of verification and validation, and the expected effects on a target track solution. Required Phase I deliverables will include at a minimum, mid-term and final progress reports a final brief for FNC stakeholders.

PHASE II: Develop, demonstrate and test a prototype expert system for the theater anti-submarine warfare conditions resulting from the Phase I effort. The prototype should provide proof-of-concept for use of contextual information for theater ASW. The prototype should be designed such that the real-world theater characteristics can be easily provided as model inputs once the demonstration using a fictional theater problem is complete. Required Phase II deliverables will include at a minimum, mid-term and final progress reports, a Phase II brief for FNC stakeholders, and the prototype software, scripts and source codes.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The results of a successful Phase II effort will be offered to the FNC program for inclusion in the Theater ASW Battle Management Tool development effort. The final state of the software application will be an integral component of the FNC software Theater ASW Situation Assessment functions and should be implemented using Software-As-A-Service (SAAS) development protocols for the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) environment. Integration and testing will be the responsibility of the FNC program, with assistance of the developer. Additionally, the results of Phase III work may be offered to an acquisition program office by means of pre-planned product improvement (P3I) mechanisms such as the Advanced Capability Build process. Private Sector Commercial Potential: Technology developed under this topic will be broadly applicable to area search problems such as maritime domain awareness (homeland defense), air traffic control and vehicle tracking.

REFERENCES:

1. White, “What Role can a Theater Anti-submarine Warfare Commander Serve in the New Maritime Strategy?,” Naval War College, Joint Military Operations Dept., 23 October 2006.

2. Burgess, “Awfully Slow Warfare,” Sea Power 48, no. 4 (April 2005), pp. 12-14.

3. Benedict, “Third World Submarine Developments.” The Submarine Review, October 1990, 53-54.

4. Shesham, “Integrating Expert System and Geographic Information Systems for Spatial Decision Making,” Western Kentucky University, Masters Thesis, December 2012.

5. Eldrandaly, “Expert Systems, GIS and Spatial Decision Making: Current Practices and New Trends,” Chapter 8, Expert Systems Research Trends, Editor: A.R. Tyler, pp. 207- 228.

6. Clark, “The Emerging Era in Undersea Warfare,” Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis, January 22, 2015, http://csbaonline.org/publications/2015/01/undersea-warfare/

7. Glynn, “Information Management in Next Generation Anti-Submarine Warfare,” Center for International Maritime Security, June 1 2016, http://cimsec.org/information-management-next-generation-anti-submarine-warfar/25614

8. Northrop Grumman, “CANES: An Open Systems C4I Networks Design,” http://www.northropgrumman.com/Capabilities/CANES/Documents/Canes_Supplement_Defense_Daily.pdf-

KEYWORDS: Theater Anti-Submarine Warfare, Ontology, Planning, Tactical Decision Aid

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

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Air Platform, Sensors

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: MQ-8C, MQ-4C and P-8A. Directly supports FNCs STK-FY13-01 Long Range RF Find, Fix, and Identify, and STK-FY18-03 Spectrum Maneuverable Radar Technology.

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 innovative algorithmic approaches and ultimately radar processing software to generate 3-D inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) and also develop feature extraction algorithms from the 3-D (ISAR) imagery formed to support vessel classification.

DESCRIPTION: Currently naval maritime surveillance operations in congested littoral environments present airborne senor operators with hundreds to possibly thousands of vessels under radar track. Classifying, identifying and determining the intent of vessels in these environments quickly overloads sensor operators and situational awareness suffers. Current state of the art ISAR based classification tools utilize ISAR image enhancement tools, automatic image selection, adaptive clutter suppression and segmentation to facilitate dimensional feature extraction necessary for classification using a comprehensive database of combatants, non-combatants and selected non-naval vessels. However classification performance suffers when classes of vessels have physical dimensions very similar to each other. In such cases additional features are needed to improve classification performance. The additional features not available in conventional plan and profile view ISAR may be available in 3-D ISAR imagery. One promising approach to generate 3-D imagery is to employ interferometric ISAR (InISAR). Typically, two displaced receivers are used to retrieve the information from the phase difference of a pair of ISAR images. If the host radar is suitable, using interferometry makes it possible to obtain a 3-D reconstruction of a target with simple and realistic motion. The first step in the InISAR signal processing chain is to generate an ISAR image for each of the receiving antennas. Then, those images are combined in order to obtain an interferogram which will be used to retrieve the interferometric phase. The last step is to convert the interferometric phase to form a representative 3-D ISAR image.

PHASE I: Develop a concept and demonstrate feasibility of InISAR algorithms using realistic simulated data in a lab environment representative of a candidate Navy radar system. Identify promising InISAR features for maritime vessels to support classification.

PHASE II: Based upon the Phase I effort, fully develop and implement the algorithms in a real-time processing environment and demonstrate with a candidate radar in a field test. Demonstrate how the InISAR application can be integrated with candidate Navy radar systems.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Transition the developed technology to candidate platforms/sensors. Potential transition platforms include the MQ-8C Fire Scout, MQ-4C Triton and the P-8A Poseidon. Private Sector Commercial Potential: Private sector applications include port surveillance and potentially some types of moving target imaging.

REFERENCES:

1. Xu, X. and Narayanan, “Three-dimensional Interferometric ISAR Imaging for Target Scattering Diagnosis and Modeling,” IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 10 (7), pp. 1094-2003, 2001.

2. Martorella, M., “Novel Approach for ISAR Image Cross-range Scaling,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 44 (1), pp. 281-294, 2008.

3. Wu, B., Yeuing, M., Hara, Y., and Kong, J., “InSAR Height Inversion by Using 3-D Phase Projection with Multiple Baselines,” Progress in Electromagnetics Research, 91, pp. 173-193, 2009.-

KEYWORDS: Interferometric; Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar; Maritime Surveillance; Maritime Imaging; Radar; Maritime Vessel Classification

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

N171-095

TITLE: Shipboard Flywheel Energy Storage Parasitic Reduction

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Ground/Sea Vehicles

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: FY15 Multifunction Energy Storage FNC

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 low parasitic components, materials, or methodologies to improve shipboard megawatt (MW) scale flywheel design and operation in a shipboard environment.

DESCRIPTION: The introduction of advanced weapons systems such as rail guns, lasers, and other future pulse loads to future warships create power and energy demands that exceed what a traditional ship electric plant interface can provide. This creates the problem of satisfying growing demand for stored energy, while working within the limited space available aboard ship platforms. Flywheel energy storage systems are potentially attractive due to high cycle life capability, tolerance for military environmental conditions, and capability for buffering multiple stochastic loads. This is provided by the capability to support rapid discharge and charge cycles on a continuous basis.

A flywheel system will typically include some number of parasitic items, which include cooling pumps, vacuum pumps, bearing power supplies, actively controlled mounts, etc. These items all contribute to continuous electrical load when in a standby state, and reduce operational time and output energy during use, when discharged energy must be utilized to support these utilities. A challenge that has not seen as much innovation is addressing a significant reduction in parasitics.

Other energy storage devices, such as lithium ion batteries, have minimal self-discharge, and can notionally sit in a ready state with no input energy for extended periods (months or more). Flywheels can lose energy continuously at a rate of single-digit percentages, e.g. 1-9% typical. For a 10kWh flywheel with 5% losses, this equates to a continuous parasitic loading of 500W, which equates to an unpowered standby time of only 10hr before a full 50% of energy has been lost. Additionally, if there are situations where active power must be provided for the purpose of bearing support (e.g. magnetic bearings), the power supply sizing and load will vary greatly, and can possibly consume even more energy in some scenarios.

The U.S. Navy is therefore interested in innovative technologies to reduce total flywheel system parasitic loads to minimize the impact of their idle and active-state operation on the parent power system, as well as ensure long periods of standby operation, including under high shock, vibration and sea-state operations. The total flywheel system includes flywheel, containment, and balance of plant, such as power supplies/converters, thermal management, bearing controls and power, vacuum systems, controls, etc. The practical manifestation of the improvements in losses is the metric of full speed standby time at the MW scale.

The topic will push a metric of 24hr threshold, 240hr objective standby time when fully self-powered, for individual flywheels with a power rating in the 3-300kW and 3-30kWh ratings with discharge capability on the order of seconds to hours. Continuously online charge-discharge of up to 50% duty cycle (e.g. up to 50% charging, 50% discharging) is necessary from a thermal and mechanical operations basis. As mentioned, the 3-300kW rating used will serve to validate approaches. Final application will be towards MW scale.

Additional, shipboard flywheel criteria applicable to all future designs to consider are as follows

• 26” shipboard hatchable design for easy removal or installation of components

PHASE I: Determine feasibility and develop a conceptual system design for a low parasitic flywheel energy storage system using developed components, materials, or methodologies, and provide comparison against a baseline state of the art complete design. The comparative design should highlight advantages that the improved low parasitic approach provides with respect to size, weight and performance in a shipboard environment. Perform an initial development effort that demonstrates scientific merit and capabilities of the proposed low parasitic approach for application in a high speed rotating storage application. The proposed approach should be demonstrated and characterized at a laboratory scale for the purpose of validating (unencrypted) models of the flywheel operation, which will be delivered to the Navy.

PHASE II: Fabricate the prototype flywheel system incorporating low parasitic components, materials, or methodologies associated with the design developed in Phase I to the highest allowable scale given constraints of budget and schedule. Fully characterize and demonstrate capabilities and limitations of the low parasitic components, materials, or methodologies. Update the kinetic energy storage design developed in Phase I based on results. Demonstration will occur at the performer location or equivalent facility, with a system that can be delivered to the Navy as a turnkey system. An updated model, unencrypted and validated, in Matlab Simulink, will also be delivered to the Navy.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Based on Phase I and II effort, fabricate full megawatt-scale kinetic energy storage system incorporating component, materials, or methodologies to reduce parasitics in shipboard flywheel through the existing ONR Multifunction Energy Storage FNC. Private Sector Commercial Potential: Successful development of high strength, next-generation flywheel materials for compact, modular energy storage will have application anywhere that such a requirement is necessary. Examples of locations where reduced mass and size are critical include mobility applications where volume is a major premium, and renewable energy systems, where size-efficient co-location of storage with the main converters have the potential to reduce cost and simplify transient operation. Integration of rotational energy storage is desirable any place a rotational transfer of power is utilized, as the storage system may be clutched and/or geared in to provide additional power transfer to or from the system as needed.

REFERENCES:

1. Panther, Chad C., “Parasitic Drag Analysis of a High Inertia Flywheel Rotating in an Enclosure”, West Virginia University, 2008, 1501605.

2. Hearn, Clay; Lewis, Michael; Hebner, Robert; “Sizing Advanced Flywheel Energy Storage,” Center for Electromechanics, The University of Texas at Austin, August 2012.

3. Hockney, Richard; Polimeno, Matthew; Robinson, George; “Flywheel Energy Storage in Support of Naval Integrated Power Systems” Contract N00024-09-C-2407.

4. P. T. McMullen, L. A. Hawkins, C. S. Huynh, and D. R. Dang, “Design and Development of a 100 kW Energy Storage Flywheel for UPS and Power Conditioning Applications,”, 24th International PCIM Conference, Nuremberg, Germany, May, 2003.

5. Huynh, C, Co ; Zheng, L ; McMullen, P, “Thermal Performance Evaluation of a High-Speed Flywheel Energy Storage System”, 33rd Annual Conference of the IEEE, November 2007.-

KEYWORDS: Flywheel; parasitic loss; rotor; bearings; pulse power; energy storage; mechanical battery

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