N231-071 TITLE: Compact Aerial Inspection System for Elevated and Small Spaces
OUSD (R&E) CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): General Warfighting Requirements (GWR)
OBJECTIVE: Develop and test a compact, stable aerial inspection system with sufficient endurance (e.g., > 15 minutes on station) capable of visually inspecting ship surfaces in tight, confined, and elevated spaces, with easy-to-use pilot/visualization/inspection software tools at the ground station.
DESCRIPTION: Ship construction and sustainment requires that a multitude of tanks and internal spaces, plus external surfaces, are prepped/remediated, coated, and inspected for quality. Currently, these surfaces are manually inspected at every step in the process, typically in difficult to access spaces, requiring personal protection and support equipment. Overall, there is a desire to remove or reduce the number of dark, dirty, and dangerous jobs in the interests of worker safety and production efficiency.
The objective is to develop and test an aerial inspection system capable of visually inspecting ship surfaces in tight, confined, and elevated spaces, with easy-to-use pilot/visualization/inspection software tools at the ground terminal complementing a compact, long-endurance, stable airborne platform. Currently available airborne systems capable of carrying the required sensor payload and command and control electronics have insufficient endurance to be able to perform much usable inspection.
The aerial inspection system consists of an airborne segment (the aerial platform), a ground segment (the ground control station) and the communications link between them. The air platform itself will need to be compact, long-endurance, and stable while supporting visual inspection requiring a high resolution color camera with gimbal and illumination. The ground segment will need to support pilot controls, as well as inspection-supporting software. The communications link will need to be robust to ship environments, accommodating metal tanks and indirect lines-of-site, while the entire system must be secure from an encryption and cybersecurity perspective.
While drone and unmanned aircraft vehicles/systems (UAV/UAS) are available within the inspection community, no commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) drone capability has been able to meet the specific requirements of naval inspectors. Some of these challenges have included size, stability, endurance, cybersecurity, and compliance with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) guidance on certain covered UAS systems and parts. The endurance is a particular challenge when coupled with the small size (width) requirement; COTS inspection drones have offered tethers to overcome endurance challenges, however, while tethers can provide extended endurance, a tether may not be consistent with operating in extended/tight spaces. The cybersecurity aspect is an area that is not generally considered when designing a �drone,� however, cybersecurity can have significant impact on whether a drone can be used within the Naval enterprise where collection of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) is likely.
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General Requirements and Specifications: |
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Endurance: 15 minutes or greater (without any tether and outside of sight of the ground station); longer is desirable |
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Surface illumination: 50 foot candles; lighting system tolerant; able to compensate for reflective surfaces; field of regard for the lighting and camera should include up/down/left/right |
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High-resolution, color camera: capable of human eye resolution |
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Size: No wider than 14.75 inches nor taller than 13 inches; 24" or less preferred |
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General System Requirements: |
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Easily portable in a ship environment |
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Capable of operating stably in confined spaces and operate in a GPS denied environment (e.g., inside a ship hull) |
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Compliant with NDAA and Executive Order 13981 |
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Communications link: certified to FIPS 140-2 Encryption or viable path thereto (i.e., any added hardware included in the endurance budget) |
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Required pilot interfaces for control; provided by ground station |
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User output from sensor package needed to perform its inspection mission: provided by ground station � Hardening: capable of eventually being hardened to survive Naval test equipment requirements (e.g., MIL-STD-28800) |
PHASE I: Develop concepts for an aerial inspection system meeting the requirements in the Description. Demonstrate the feasibility of the concepts in meeting Navy and Naval Enterprise needs; and establish the concepts for development into a useful product. Establish feasibility through material testing and analytical modeling, as appropriate. Provide a Phase II development plan with performance goals and key technical milestones that address technical risk reduction.
PHASE II: Develop a prototype for evaluation to determine its capability in meeting the performance goals defined in the Phase II development plan and the Navy requirements for the aerial inspection system. Support Navy requirements for any flight operations, such as submittal of Navy Cybersecurity Waiver Board interaction, submissions and approvals, and development of a system security plan. Demonstrate system performance through prototype evaluation and modeling or analytical methods over the required range of parameters. Use evaluation results to refine the prototype into an initial design that will meet the Naval Enterprise requirements. Prepare a Phase III development plan to transition the technology to Naval Enterprise use.
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: During Phase III it is expected that this product could go into useful service in government and industry shipyards as well as assist with naval sustainment activities. This product could be leveraged in commercial shipyards, industrial plant inspection, and any application requiring visual inspection in tight or confined spaces.
REFERENCES:
1. MIL-PRF-28800 � Test Equipment for use with Electrical and Electronic Equipment https://quicksearch.dla.mil/Transient/18ADD73A31A541B88533E5FDA7868807.pdf
2. NDAA 2021 Section 848 https://www.congress.gov/117/plaws/publ81/PLAW-117publ81.pdf
3. Navy Drone Board information including DoD currently approved UAVs https://www.diu.mil/blue-uas-cleared-list
4. FIPS PUB 140-2 - FEDERAL INFORMATION PROCESSING STANDARDS PUBLICATION (Supersedes FIPS PUB 140-1, 1994 January 11) https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.140-2.pdf
5. Navy ManTech Project book for project: (S2788) Tank inspection using Drones. https://www.nsrp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ManTech-Project-S2788-Tank-Inspection-Using-Drones.pptx
KEYWORDS: Inspection, Drone; Unmanned Airborne Vehicle; UAV; Unmanned Airborne System; UAS; Aerial inspection system; Ground station; Confined spaces
** TOPIC NOTICE ** |
The Navy Topic above is an "unofficial" copy from the Navy Topics in the DoD 23.1 SBIR BAA. Please see the official DoD Topic website at www.defensesbirsttr.mil/SBIR-STTR/Opportunities/#announcements for any updates. The DoD issued its Navy 23.1 SBIR Topics pre-release on January 11, 2023 which opens to receive proposals on February 8, 2023, and closes March 8, 2023 (12:00pm ET). Direct Contact with Topic Authors: During the pre-release period (January 11, 2023 thru February 7, 2023) proposing firms have an opportunity to directly contact the Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) to ask technical questions about the specific BAA topic. Once DoD begins accepting proposals on February 8, 2023 no further direct contact between proposers and topic authors is allowed unless the Topic Author is responding to a question submitted during the Pre-release period. SITIS Q&A System: After the pre-release period, and until February 22, 2023, (at 12:00 PM ET), proposers may submit written questions through SITIS (SBIR/STTR Interactive Topic Information System) at www.dodsbirsttr.mil/topics-app/, login and follow instructions. In SITIS, the questioner and respondent remain anonymous but all questions and answers are posted for general viewing. Topics Search Engine: Visit the DoD Topic Search Tool at www.dodsbirsttr.mil/topics-app/ to find topics by keyword across all DoD Components participating in this BAA.
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| 2/27/23 | Q. | The solicitation asks for a communications link that is "certified to FIPS 140-2 Encryption or viable path thereto" for the purpose of operating in CUI environments. It is our understanding that there are four levels in FIPS 140-2, and each successive level has more stringent requirements. Which one is the target for the purpose of this topic? |
| A. | We would recommend designing to at least the most basic level at this point. Unfortunately, this requirement extends from certain cybersecurity policies/regulations (through DFARS) that in some cases are still being interpreted as they are implemented/applied. So unfortunately we don�t have a direct answer. | |
| 2/13/23 | Q. | What is the number of UAS�s in the initial block I acquisition? Will there be an annual acquisition requirement? |
| A. | The anticipated application was initially focused on testing during ship (tank) construction and eventual maintenance. Posting of this topic has resulted in being introduced to a number of support activities which are interested in the results of this topic for their potential application. It also has resulted in the Joint Defense Manufacturing Technology Panel (JDMTP established by Title 10 ManTech) agreeing that this UAV capability is required across the broader DoD enterprise. This implies there is pent up demand once this topic produces a viable solution although the authors are unaware of any specific acquisition program at this time. |
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| 2/9/23 | Q. | The requirement states, "No wider than 14.75 inches nor taller than 13 inches; 24" or less preferred." Does this mean that the UAS must fit within a 14.75" wide x 13" high x 24" long bounding box in its fully assembled, operational state (propellers included)? Or rather, that it must disassemble to these dimensions for travel? |
| A. | The UAS must fit within the bounds described in its operational state, propellers included. |
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| 2/8/23 | Q. | What type of inspection data do you plan to collect, just flat imagery or will 3D data be gathered? |
| A. | We didn�t want to be too specific about sensor data since that will depend on the final tradeoff between payload and endurance. That said, I have been recommending budget for bandwidth equivalent to real time high definition video. That should create the demand on vehicle power. (In fact the more germane question regards number of channels, but I would not have a good answer.) Our development team (during the past effort) knew they needed bandwidth for navigation and payload, but never really got past the demands of the video payload sensor (e.g. to include the contact sensor). |