DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY
FY2010.1 SBIR Proposal Submission
DARPA’s mission is to prevent technological surprise for the United States and to create technological surprise for its adversaries. The DARPA SBIR and STTR Programs are designed to provide small, high-tech businesses and academic institutions the opportunity to propose radical, innovative, high-risk approaches to address existing and emerging national security threats; thereby supporting DARPA’s overall strategy to bridge the gap between fundamental discoveries and the provision of new military capabilities.
The responsibility for implementing DARPA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program rests with the Innovative Research Office.
DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY
Attention: DIRO/SBIR/STTR
3701 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203-1714
(703) 526-4170
Home Page http://www.darpa.mil
Offerors responding to the DARPA topics listed in Section 8.0 of this solicitation must follow all the instructions provided in the DoD Solicitation Instructions preface. Specific DARPA requirements in addition to or that deviate from the DoD Solicitation Instructions are provided below and reference the appropriate section of the DoD Solicitation Instructions. All proposals must be submitted electronically through the DoD SBIR Web site at http://www.dodsbir.net/submission by the submission deadline. Proposals provided in hard copy or via e-mail will not be accepted. In addition, all topics are UNCLASSIFIED and only UNCLASSIFIED proposals will be accepted.
SPECIFIC DARPA REQUIREMENTS:
2.15 Foreign National
DARPA topics are unclassified; however, the subject matter may be considered to be a “critical technology” and may be subject to ITAR restrictions. If you plan to employ NON-U.S. Citizens in the performance of a DARPA SBIR contract, please inform the Contracting Officer who is negotiating your contract. See Export Control requirements below in Section 5.
3.5 Phase I Proposal Format
PHASE I OPTION
PHASE I OPTION MUST BE INCLUDED AS PART OF PHASE I PROPOSAL. Beginning with this solicitation, DARPA is implementing the use of a Phase I Option that may be exercised to fund interim Phase I activities while a Phase II contract is being negotiated. Only Phase I companies selected for Phase II will be eligible to exercise the Phase I Option. The Phase I Option, which must be included as part of the Phase I proposal, covers activities over a period of up to four months and should describe appropriate initial Phase II activities that may lead to the successful demonstration of a product or technology. The Phase I Option must be included within the 25-page limit for the Phase I proposal.
A firm fixed price or cost plus fixed fee Phase I Cost Proposal ($149,000 maximum) must be submitted in detail online. Proposers that participate in this Solicitation must complete the Phase I Cost Proposal, not to exceed the maximum dollar amount of $99,000, and a Phase I Option Cost Proposal (if applicable), not to exceed the maximum dollar amount of $50,000. Phase I and Phase I Option costs must be shown separately but may be presented side-by-side on a single Cost Proposal. The Cost Proposal DOES NOT count toward the 25-page Phase I proposal limitation.
3.7 Phase II Proposal Format
DARPA Program Managers may invite Phase I performers to submit a Phase II proposal based upon the success of the Phase I contract to meet the technical goals of the topic, as well as the overall merit based upon the criteria in section 4.3 of the SBIR 10.1 solicitation. Phase II proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation criteria provided in Section 4.3. Due to limited funding, DARPA reserves the right to limit awards under any topic and only proposals considered to be of superior quality will be funded.
PHASE II OPTION
PHASE II OPTION MUST BE INCLUDED AS PART OF PHASE II PROPOSAL. Beginning with this solicitation, DARPA is implementing the use of a Phase II Option that may be exercised at the DARPA Program Manager's discretion to continue funding Phase II activities that will further mature the technology for insertion into a larger DARPA Program or DoD Acquisition Program. The Phase II Option, which must be included as part of the Phase II proposal, covers activities over a period of up to 24 months and should describe Phase II activities that may lead to the successful demonstration of a product or technology. The Phase II Option must be included within the 40-page limit for the Phase II proposal.
A cost plus fixed fee Phase II Cost Proposal ($750,000 maximum) must be submitted in detail online. Proposers that submit a Phase II proposal must complete the Phase II Cost Proposal, not to exceed the maximum dollar amount of $750,000, and a Phase II Option Cost Proposal (if applicable), not to exceed the maximum dollar amount of $750,000. Phase II and Phase II Option costs must be shown separately but may be presented side-by-side on a single Cost Proposal. The Cost Proposal DOES NOT count toward the 40-page Phase II proposal limitation.
If selected, the government may elect not to include the option in the negotiated contract.
4.0 Method of Selection and Evaluation Criteria
The offeror's attention is directed to the fact that non-Government advisors to the Government may review and provide support in proposal evaluations during source selection. Non-government advisors may have access to the offeror's proposals, may be utilized to review proposals, and may provide comments and recommendations to the Government's decision makers. These advisors will not establish final assessments of risk and will not rate or rank offeror's proposals. They are also expressly prohibited from competing for DARPA SBIR or STTR awards in the SBIR/STTR topics they review and/or provide comments on to the Government. All advisors are required to comply with procurement integrity laws and are required to sign Non-Disclosure and Rules of Conduct/Conflict of Interest statements. Non-Government technical consultants/experts will not have access to proposals that are labeled by their proposers as "Government Only."
4.2 Evaluation Criteria
DARPA selects proposals for funding based on technical merit and the evaluation criteria contained in this solicitation document. DARPA gives twice the weight to Criterion A. “The soundness, technical merit, and innovation of the proposed approach and its incremental progress toward topic or subtopic solution.” Please note proposals that scored low on evaluation Criterion C. “The potential for commercial (government or private sector) application and the benefits expected to accrue from this commercialization” are considered weaker proposals. As funding is limited, DARPA reserves the right to select and fund only those proposals considered to be superior in overall technical quality and highly relevant to the DARPA mission. As a result, DARPA may fund more than one proposal in a specific topic area if the technical quality of the proposals is deemed superior and are highly relevant to the DARPA mission, or it may not fund any proposals in a topic area. Each proposal submitted to DARPA must have a topic number and must be responsive to only one topic.
4.4 Assessing Commercial Potential of Proposals
DARPA is particularly interested in the potential transition of SBIR project results to the U.S. military, and expects explicit discussion of a transition vision in the commercialization strategy part of the proposal. That vision should include identification of the problem, need, or requirement in the Department of Defense that the SBIR project results would address; a description of how wide-spread and significant the problem, need, or requirement is; identification of the potential end-users (Army, Navy, Air Force, SOCOM, etc.) who would likely use the technology; and the operational environments and potential application area(s).
Technology commercialization and transition from Research and Development activities to fielded systems within the DoD is challenging. Phase I is the time to plan for and begin transition specific activities. The small business must convey an understanding of the transition path or paths to be established during the Phase I and II projects. That plan should include the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at the start and end of the Phase II. The plan should also include a description of targeted operational environments and priority application areas for initial Phase III transition; potential Phase III transition funding sources; anticipated business model and identified commercial and federal partners the SBIR company has identified to support transition activities. Also include key proposed milestones anticipated during Phase I, II or beyond Phase II that include, but are not limited to: prototype development, laboratory and systems testing, integration, testing in operational environment, and demonstrations.
4.5 SBIR Fast Track
· DARPA encourages Phase I performers to discuss its intention to pursue Fast Track with the DARPA Program Manager prior to submitting a Fast Track application or proposal. Selection of a Fast Track proposal is not mandated and DARPA retains the discretion to not select or fund any Fast Track proposal.
· After coordination with the DARPA Program Manager, the performer and the investor are required to submit a Fast Track application through the DoD Submission Web site no later than the last day of the 6th month of the Phase I effort.
· The Fast Track Interim amount is not to exceed $40,000.
· The performer must submit its Phase II proposal before the last day of the 7th month of the Phase I effort.
4.6 Phase II Enhancement Policy
DARPA will provide a Phase II performer up to $200,000 of additional Phase II SBIR funding if the performer can match the additional SBIR funds with non-SBIR funds from DoD core-mission funds or the private sector. Generally, the additional Phase II funds are applied to the Phase II contract. Phase II Enhancements are subject to the availability of funds.
4.7 Commercialization Pilot Program
DARPA does not participate in the Commercialization Pilot Program (CPP); however, DARPA has established a Transition Support Pilot Program focused on transitioning innovative technologies to the most critical U.S. military end-users as well as key collaboration partners. This program will also support transitions within DARPA, civilian agencies, and private-sector, if deemed critical for technology transition success. The program, administered by the DARPA SBIR Program Office with support from The Foundation for Enterprise Development (The Foundation), a U.S. owned non-profit organization, consists of the following assistance:
· Transition Assistance. The Foundation will provide DARPA funded SBIR Phase II companies identified to participate in the Pilot with guidance and assistance in identifying and facilitating introductions to potential collaborators, funding sources, and end users, in support of SBIR Company’s Phase III technology development activities. Thus, identification of potential funding sources will be primarily focused on enabling the SBIR Company to work towards reaching Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7 – System prototype demonstration in an operational environment. Specific potential funding sources will be identified throughout a designated period of transition support and may include, but are not limited to:
- DARPA
- Other DoD research programs (e.g.: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps)
- Prime contractor programs, to include their Independent Research & Development (IR&D) programs
- Non-DoD Federal research programs in the Intelligence agencies and the Department of Homeland Security
- Other non-DoD Federal research programs, such as those within National Institutes of Health
- Other DoD-funded technology transition programs as appropriate (e.g., Technology Transition Initiative, Defense Acquisition Challenge, TechLink and TechMatch)
- Venture capital funding sources
To be eligible for assistance, the SBIR Company must have an active Phase II, expected technology readiness level of 5 or greater at the completion of Phase II, and understanding of and progress within the expected transition path or paths. DARPA retains the discretion to not select a company. Each identified company will execute a Technology Transition Agreement with the contractor to initiate support. Participation in the DARPA Technology Transition Pilot Program is voluntary.
· All obligations of the SBIR Company shall be carried out at no cost to The Foundation or DARPA and are not billable to any SBIR contract. The SBIR Company shall make relevant experts reasonably available to The Foundation to discuss potential application areas for the technology under development and to support the execution of the technology transition support services described above. The SBIR Company also shall make its relevant experts available for follow-up discussions and briefings with potential collaborators or representatives from federal or other potential funding sources. As appropriate, the SBIR Company will develop appropriate company profiles, briefings and other types of informational materials to support discussions and briefings. SBIR companies involved in the transition pilot will be asked for feedback on the assistance provided upon completion of the Phase II and on transition outcomes within the year following the Phase II.
· Success Reports: The Foundation will document company Phase III transition successes individualized reports as well as or other printed material for distribution at outreach events and for posting on the DARPA SBIR Web site. SBIR companies that have received Phase III funding are eligible to work with The Foundation to develop the success report. Cleared Success Reports will continue to be posted on the DARPA SBIR Web site. The 2007 DARPA SBIR Success Reports can be viewed at this link: http://www.darpa.mil/sbpo/success/index.html
· Outreach/Process Improvement: The Foundation will capture lessons learned, program feedback and best practices from SBIR companies, and will help develop and implement process improvements to increase transition success for DARPA SBIR funded companies. Transition outreach includes panel presentation and one-on-one meetings at selective SBIR conferences. Additional transition–related documentation and links will be available upon request and via the SBIR web site in the future. All active DARPA SBIR companies are eligible for this outreach support.
· Phase III transition support is subject to the availability of funds.
5.1.b. Type of Funding Agreement (Phase I)
· DARPA Phase I awards will be Firm Fixed Price contracts.
· Companies that choose to collaborate with a University must highlight the research that is being performed by the University and verify that the work is FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH.
· Companies are strongly encouraged to pursue implementing a government acceptable cost accounting system during the Phase I project to avoid delay in receiving a Phase II award. Visit www.dcaa.mil and download the “Information for Contractors” guide for more information.
5.1.c. Average Dollar Value of Awards (Phase I)
DARPA Phase I proposals shall not exceed $99,000, and are generally 6 months in duration. Phase I contracts will not be extended.
5.2.b. Type of Funding Agreement (Phase II)
· DARPA Phase II awards will be Cost Plus Fixed Fee contracts.
· DARPA may choose to award a Firm Fixed Price Phase II contract on a case-by-case basis. However, companies are advised to continue pursuit of implementation of a government acceptable cost accounting system in order to facilitate their eligibility for future government contracts.
· Companies that choose to collaborate with a University must highlight the research that is being performed by the University and verify that the work is FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH.
5.2.c. Average Dollar Value of Awards (Phase II)
DARPA Phase II proposals must be structured as follows: the first 10-12 months (base effort) should be approximately $375,000; the second 10-12 months of incremental funding should also be approximately $375,000. The entire Phase II effort should generally not exceed $750,000.
5.3 Phase I Report
All DARPA Phase I and Phase II awardees are required to submit a final report, which is due within 60 days following completion of the technical period of performance and must be provided to the individuals identified in Exhibit A of the contract. Please contact your contracting officer immediately if your final report may be delayed.
5.11.r. Export Control
The following will apply to all projects with military or dual-use applications that develop beyond fundamental research (basic and applied research ordinarily published and shared broadly within the scientific community):
(1) The Contractor shall comply with all U. S. export control laws and regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120 through 130, and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730 through 799, in the performance of this contract. In the absence of available license exemptions/exceptions, the Contractor shall be responsible for obtaining the appropriate licenses or other approvals, if required, for exports of (including deemed exports) hardware, technical data, and software, or for the provision of technical assistance.
(2) The Contractor shall be responsible for obtaining export licenses, if required, before utilizing foreign persons in the performance of this contract, including instances where the work is to be performed on-site at any Government installation (whether in or outside the United States), where the foreign person will have access to export-controlled technologies, including technical data or software.
(3) The Contractor shall be responsible for all regulatory record keeping requirements associated with the use of licenses and license exemptions/exceptions.
(4) The Contractor shall be responsible for ensuring that the provisions of this clause apply to its subcontractors.
Please visit http://www.pmddtc.state.gov/regulations_laws/itar.html for more detailed information regarding ITAR requirements.
5.11.s. Publication Approval
There shall be no dissemination or publication, except within and between the Contractor and any subcontractors, of information developed under this contract or contained in the reports to be furnished pursuant to this contract without prior written approval of the DARPA Technical Information Officer (DARPA/TIO). All technical reports will be given proper review by appropriate authority to determine which Distribution Statement is to be applied prior to the initial distribution of these reports by the Contractor. Papers resulting from unclassified contracted fundamental research are exempt from prepublication controls and this review requirement, pursuant to DoD Instruction 5230.27 dated October 6, 1987. Any publications shall incorporate an Acknowledgement of Support and Disclaimer in accordance with FAR 252.235-7010.
The following provision will be incorporated into any resultant contract:
When submitting material for written approval for open publication as described above, the Contractor/Awardee must submit a request for public release to the DARPA TIO 5 weeks prior to the event. Requests received with a due date of less than five weeks lead time require a justification. Unusual electronic file formats may require additional processing time. Include the following information:
1) Document Information: document title, document author, short plain-language description of technology discussed in the material (approx. 30 words), number of pages (or minutes of video) and document type (briefing, report, abstract, article, or paper);
2) Event Information: event type (conference, principle investigator meeting, article or paper), event date, desired date for DARPA's approval;
3) DARPA Sponsor: DARPA Program Manager, DARPA office, and contract number; and
4) Contractor/Awardee Information: POC name, e-mail and phone.
Requests can be sent either via e-mail to tio@darpa.mil or via surface mail to 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington VA 22203-1714, telephone (571) 218-4235. Refer to http://www.darpa.mil/tio for information about DARPA's public release process.
5.14.h. Human and/or Animal Use
This solicitation may contain topics that have been identified by the program manager as research involving Human and/or Animal Use. In accordance with DoD Policy, human and/or animal subjects in research conducted or supported by DARPA shall be protected. Although these protocols will most likely not be needed to carry out the Phase I, significant lead time is required to prepare the documentation and obtain approval in order to avoid delay of the Phase II award. Please visit http://www.darpa.mil/sbpo/docs/SBIR_STTRs_Human_Animal.pdf to review the Human and Animal Use PowerPoint presentation(s) to understand what is required to comply with human and/or animal protocols.
· Human Use: All research involving human subjects, to include use of human biological specimens and human data, selected for funding must comply with the federal regulations for human subject protection. Further, research involving human subjects that is conducted or supported by the DoD must comply with 32 CFR 219, Protection of Human Subjects (http://www.dtic.mil/biosys/downloads/32cfr219.pdf), and DoD Directive 3216.02, Protection of Human Subjects and Adherence to Ethical Standards in DoD-Supported Research (http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/321602p.pdf ).
· Animal Use: Any Recipient performing research, experimentation, or testing involving the use of animals shall comply with the rules on animal acquisition, transport, care, handling, and use in: (i) 9 CFR parts 1-4, Department of Agriculture rules that implement the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act of 1966, as amended, (7 U.S.C. 2131-2159); (ii) the guidelines described in National Institutes of Health Publication No. 86-23, "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals"; (iii) DoD Directive 3216.01, “Use of Laboratory Animals in DoD Program.”
6.3 Notification of Proposal Receipt
DARPA will send each offeror an e-mail acknowledging receipt of proposal after the solicitation closing date.
6.4 Information on Proposal Status
All letters notifying offerors of selection or non-selection will be sent via e-mail to the person listed as the “Corporate Official” on the proposal.
6.5 Debriefing of Unsuccessful Offerors
DARPA will provide each unsuccessful offeror an automatic debriefing summary as an enclosure to the notification of non-selection. Requests for clarification to information provided in the debriefing summary must be sent via e-mail to sbir@darpa.mil within 15 days of receipt of notification.
DARPA SBIR 10.1 Topic Index
SB101-001 Development of Robust, Effective, Inexpensive, Flexible Water and Oxygen Barriers for
Flexible Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (FOLEDs)
SB101-002 Enabling Effective Intelligent Tutoring Systems by Sensing Affect
SB101-003 Therapeutic Hypothermia for Treating Traumatic Brain Injury
SB101-004 High Performance Imaging for Small UAV Applications
SB101-005 Tools for the Analysis of Social and Group Dynamics
SB101-006 Adaptive Data Visualization Under Cognitive and Communications Bandwidth
Limitations
SB101-007 Experience-Based Advisory Systems for Ground Operations
SB101-008 High-Power High-Linearity High-Speed Photodetection Modules
SB101-009 Miniature UV Sources for Imaging Applications
SB101-010 Non-Condensing Anti-Fog Hydrophobic Optical Coating
SB101-011 Simplified Interface for Navigation Devices for Addition of Aiding Sensors
SB101-012 Revolutionary Electric Propulsion
SB101-013 High Density Power Converter Electronics
SB101-014 Passivation of Laser Diode Micro Channel Coolers
DARPA SBIR 10.1 Topic Descriptions
SB101-001 TITLE: Development of Robust, Effective, Inexpensive, Flexible Water and Oxygen
Barriers for Flexible Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (FOLEDs)
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes
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 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation.
OBJECTIVE: Develop flexible oxygen and water barrier material(s) which can be deposited at high throughput. The ultimate target for barrier performance is a water transmission rate of 1 x 10-6 g/m2/day which can survive a 5% film strain.
DESCRIPTION: Extremely low gas permeability barriers are needed to prevent diffusion through polymer substrates. For example, the failure of flexible organic electronic devices occurs because O2 and H2O can easily permeate through polymeric packaging materials. These oxidants degrade the light-emitting organics and lead to oxidation of the metal cathode. To reduce permeation of O2 and H2O, inorganic materials have been used to coat the polymer packaging materials to provide a diffusion barrier. Unfortunately, single inorganic films deposited using vacuum-based deposition techniques do not provide an adequate gas diffusion barrier for many applications. At thicknesses above 20 nm the films are stiff and rigid. Below 20 nm, these films allow high transmission rates of oxidants. Typical H2O transmission rates of ~0.05 g/m2/day are observed for single thin films of silica (SiO2) and alumina (Al2O3), which are due to pinholes, particles, and defects innate to the random nature of line-of-sight deposition techniques. In contrast, maximum allowable H2O transmission rates of ~ 1 x 10-6 g/m2/day are required to achieve an OLED lifetime of 10,000 hours.
A possible new approach to barrier layer fabrication is Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). Pinhole-free Al2O3 ALD films have been demonstrated and preliminary data suggests Al2O3/Polymer multi-layer barriers with layer thicknesses of <20 nm fabricated by ALD should display unprecedented performance as flexible gas diffusion barriers. The successful development of these new hybrid Al2O3/Polymer multi-layers would disrupt current technology and enable flexible gas diffusion barriers on polymer substrates. Further, ALD is a non-line-of-sight technique for depositing conformal thin films, which will enable entirely new packaging capabilities.
One of the primary considerations in developing this technology will be the cost to produce the barrier. A target cost of less than $1/ft2 for barrier fabrication has been set by the display industry .This goal is not feasible with conventional ALD batch processing. Higher throughput – for example roll-to-roll – ALD deposition technology needs to be developed to significantly reduce the cost of barrier fabrication.
PHASE I: Using ALD or similar revolutionary approach (sputtering will not be deemed revolutionary), produce barrier films on polymer substrates which can survive a 2% substrate strain while providing a transmission rate of at most 1 x 10-3 g/m2/day water. Demonstrate this technology in a manner designed to be inherently scalable to commercial production. Deliverables will include 10 samples which are at least 10x10 cm. Perform economic analysis on the Phase I process to quantify actual Phase I manufacturing costs. Identify process enhancements to be developed in Phase II which bring the full-scale production costs down to no more than the $1/ft2 target price while meeting the Phase II technical goals.
PHASE II: Improve the flexibility of the barrier films to survive the 5% strain target while providing the 1 x 10-6 g/m2/day water barrier performance on samples which are at least 10x10 cm. Demonstrate manufacturing processes capable of, after full scale up, producing continuous polymer web based coated material at least 10 cm x 100 m with barrier properties of at least 1 x 10-6 g/m2/day water at target cost of <$1/ft2.
PHASE III: Develop commercial production barrier films with the permeability, strain, and costs characteristics detailed in phase II. Such coatings can be used as protective coating for flexible displays as well as packaging for meals ready to eat (MREs) and for packaging medical supplies. Potential Commercial Applications: flexible displays, packaging for meals ready to eat and medical supplies.
Potential Commercial Customers: Display industry in general (IBM, HP, etc.), packaging industry (DuPont, Dow, BASF, etc.)
REFERENCES:
1. N. Cordero, J. Yoon, Z. Suo, “Channel Crack in a Hermetic Coating Consisting of Organic and Inorganic Layers” Applied Physics Letters, 90, 111910 (270).
2. A.A. Dameron, S.D. Davidson, B.B. Burton, P.F. Carcia, R.S. McLean and S.M. George, "Gas Diffusion Barriers on Polymers Using Multilayers Fabricated by Al2O3 and Rapid SiO2 Atomic Layer Deposition", J. Phys. Chem. C 112, 4573-4580 (2008).
3. P.F. Carcia, R.S. McLean, M.H. Reilly, M.D. Groner and S.M. George, "Ca-Tests of Al2O3 Gas Diffusion Barriers Grown by Atomic Layer Deposition on Polymers", Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 031915 (2006).
KEYWORDS: Thin Films, Surface Growth, Oxidation protection, Impermeable strain resistant coatings.
SB101-002 TITLE: Enabling Effective Intelligent Tutoring Systems by Sensing Affect
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Human Systems
OBJECTIVE: Develop a system that assesses and uses a student’s affective state to improve the effectiveness of Intelligent Tutoring Systems.
DESCRIPTION: Learning requires interaction between the student and their instructor (1). These interactions are most effective when done in settings where the instructor-to-student ratio is small (2). In the Department of Defense, where training is an ongoing priority for all service-members, maintaining a low student to human instructor ratio is costly. Many attempts have been made to reduce this cost by replacing human instructors with Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), which are meant to provide customized instruction independent of human instructors (3). However, current ITSs significantly lag human instructor capability when considered in terms of their ability to consistently demonstrate equivalent learning improvements (4).
This disparity between human instructors and ITSs may lie in the degree to which human instructors are able to foster the affective dimension of learning. Affect (5) refers to the attitudes that students have towards learning – e.g. motivation, interest & engagement. Mounting evidence suggests that increased levels of student affect when interacting with human instructors has a significant, positive, impact on the rate with which material is learned (6) as well as the effectiveness of this learning (7). This effect is independent of the level of previous training on the subject material a student may have. Simply put, effective human instructors are able to monitor student affect and tailor their teaching methods to maintain high levels of affect (8); currently, ITSs are not enabled to do this (9).
This suggests that one way to improve the overall effectiveness of ITSs is to enable them to characterize student affect and craft instructional content and delivery based on this assessment. Significant research has been done linking facial expressions to different affective states and to exploit these relationships to guide machine responses accordingly (10). The goal of this SBIR is to develop a system that significantly expands these findings to characterize student affective state using a much wider range of such behaviors (eg facial expressions, gestures, tonal inflections) (11,12), to guide an ITS in crafting appropriate instruction based on this assessment. The resulting technology must be platform independent, calibratable to different individuals and transparent to the user.
PHASE I: Develop preliminary design concept and determine technological feasibility of a technology that will enable effective intelligent tutoring by noninvasively detecting a student’s affective state. The final report must include system and user performance metrics and plans for Phase II. Specifically the final report must include: a) a discussion of the different types of behaviors that will be captured to inform this technology, linking them to affective state; b) the tradeoffs and weightings between these behaviors and affective states; c) one or more approaches for developing a calibration procedure to account for variability of different individuals; and, d) an architecture for developing a closed loop, platform independent, system. Optimizing per-unit cost will be considered a critical performance metric. Phase II plans should include preliminary design plans, key component technological milestones and plans for at least one operational test and evaluation. Phase I should also include the processing and submission of all required human subjects use protocols.
PHASE II: Develop a prototype closed loop system based on the preliminary design from Phase I. All appropriate engineering testing will be performed, and a critical design review will be performed to finalize the design. Emphasis will be placed upon prototype functionality and accuracy and the ability to calibrate to individual affective state. Phase II deliverables will include: (1) a working prototype of the technology, including calibration capability, (2) drawings and specifications for its construction, and (3) test data on its performance collected in one or more operational settings.
PHASE III: There are both military and commercial applications for this technology, which will significantly improve the quality of ITS-based training. Target military applications include those whose training relies heavily on computer based training (CBT), or distance learning (DL) approaches, to supplement live instructor based training. It is estimated that within the DoD, if these and similar training technologies could reduce the time to deliver specialized skill training to just half of all personnel by 30%, the resulting cost savings would approach $500M/yr. One key to ensuring this reduction in training time is to enable these systems to more effectively tailor instructional content to individual student needs by assessing student affect. Commercially, there is a large training and education sector currently working to provide computer based training tools to the K-12 student demographic. Incorporating this technology will help make this training more effective by enabling these tools to tailor instructional content to the individual student. As well, the grade school and high school tutoring and standardized exam preparation market heavily relies on computer based training and provides another market for this technology. Finally, non-training applications for this tool include gaming, entertainment and medical rehabilitation – domains in which the ability to gauge users’ affect and tailor content accordingly will lead to more pleasant, engaging and successful experiences. Commercially, there is a large training and education sector currently working to provide computer based training tools to the K-12 student demographic. Incorporating this technology will help make this training more effective by enabling these tools to tailor instructional content to the individual student. As well, the grade school and high school tutoring and standardized exam preparation market heavily relies on computer based training and provides another market for this technology. Finally, non-training applications for this tool include gaming, entertainment and medical rehabilitation - domains in which the ability to gauge users' affect and tailor content accordingly will lead to more pleasant, engaging and successful experiences.
Potential customers include: School districts, private tutoring and testing firms, game development companies, rehabilitation centers, hospitals, educational software development companies.
REFERENCES:
1. Graesser, A. C., Person, N. K., & Magliano, J. P. (1995). Collaborative dialogue patterns in naturalistic one-to-one tutoring. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9, 1-28.
2. Bloom, B.S.(1984): The 2 Sigma Problem: The search for methods of group instruction as effective as 1-to-1 tutoring. Educational Research 13(84), 3-15.
3. Schmorrow, D., Cohn, J. & Nicholson D. (Eds.). (2008). The Handbook Of Virtual Environments For Training And Education: Developments Applications And Issues For The Military And Beyond Westport CT: Praeger Security International.
4. Lane, H.C. (2006). Intelligent Tutoring Systems: Prospects for Guided Practice and Efficient Learning. Whitepaper for the Army's Science of Learning Workshop, Hampton, VA. Aug 2006. Downloaded 16 July 2008 from http://people.ict.usc.edu/~lane/
5. Bloom, B., Englehart, M. Furst, E., Hill, W., & Krathwohl, D. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York, Toronto: Longmans, Green.
6. Kulik, C.C. & Kulik, J.A. (1991). Effectiveness of computer-based instruction: An updated analysis. Computers in Human Behaviour, 7, 75-94.
7. Torkzadeh, R., Pflughoeft, K., & Hall, L. (1999). Computer self-efficacy, training effectiveness and user attitudes: An empirical study. Behaviour & Information Technology. 18:4, 299-309.
8. Graesser, A.C., Person, N.K., and Magliano, J.P. (1995). Collaborative dialogue patterns in naturalistic one-to-one tutoring. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9, 1–28.
9. Picard, R.W., S. Papert, W. Bender, B. Blumberg, C. Breazeal, D. Cavallo, T. Machover, M. Resnick, D. Roy and C. Strohecker (2004). Affective Learning--A Manifesto. BT Technical Journal 22(4), 253-269.
10. Whitehill, J., Bartlett, M., & Movellan, J. (2008) Automatic Facial Expression Recognition for Intelligent Tutoring Systems, CVPR 2008 Workshop on Human Communicative Behavior Analysis. Downloaded on 16 July 2008 from
http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=749 .
11. Susskind, J.M., Littlewort, G., Bartlett, M.S., Movellan, J.R., and Anderson, A.K. (2007). Human and computer recognition of facial expressions of emotion. Neuropsychologia 45(1), 152-162.
12. Bartlett, M.S.; Littlewort, G.; Frank, M.; Lainscsek, C.; Fasel, I.; Movellan, J. (2005). Recognizing facial expression: machine learning and application to spontaneous behavior. Proceedings of IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2, 568 – 573.
KEYWORDS: Affect, Learning, Facial Expression, Gesture Recognition, Intelligent Tutoring System, Machine Learning
SB101-003 TITLE: Therapeutic Hypothermia for Treating Traumatic Brain Injury
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Biomedical
OBJECTIVE: The goal of Therapeutic Hypothermia for Treating Traumatic Brain Injury (THyTT) is to reduce or eliminate the deadly effects of TBI’s secondary injury processes during the time required to evacuate wounded warriors from the combat environment.
DESCRIPTION: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) has become the signature wound of the War on Terror, accounting for a larger percentage of casualties in the current conflict than in previous ones (1). TBI results from two components, the fast acting primary injury, which includes the damage that occurs at the moment of trauma when tissues and blood vessels are stretched, compressed, and/or torn, and the slower acting secondary injury, which includes a complex set of cellular processes and biochemical cascades that occur in the minutes to days following the trauma culminating in substantial nerve cell death (2). These secondary processes can become irreversible in as little as 90 minutes resulting in permanent degraded physical performance and impaired cognitive function (3, 4). They dramatically worsen the damage caused by primary injury (5) and account for the greatest number of chronic TBI cases and TBI deaths (6).
The use of therapeutic hypothermia in reducing brain damage following stroke has been well documented (7). Human stroke patients, animal stroke models as well as human aneurysm patients have shown dramatic neuroprotection with moderate degrees of cortical cooling (8, 9). Recent findings suggest that applying this cooling approach to reduce the consequences of secondary injury following TBI will significantly improve the long-term outcome for both cognitive and motor skills (10, 11). While this TBI-related approach is still in its infancy and not yet ready for implementation in combat settings, significant advances have been made in the core technologies underlying this approach (12).
The goal of Therapeutic Hypothermia for Treating TBI is to deliver a combat-deployable cooling technology that will extend the golden hour of patient survivability and increase the chances for full recovery once the Warfighter begins receiving advanced medical treatment. Key challenges with using hypothermia to improve wounded warrior survivability following TBI, which are to be addressed in this topic, include:
• Developing a closed loop regulatable cooling technology: To help regulate the cooling and to ensure that the treatment itself does not introduce additional damage, novel coolant, coolant delivery technologies and fine resolution real-time feedback metrics and controls must be developed to assist in real-time regulation of the cooling application in a closed loop arrangement.
• Determining ideal cooling regimens: There is a tradeoff between absolute cooling temperature, rate at which cooling temperature is attained, time at cooling temperature, location(s) at which cooling is applied and degree of injury progression, which differ across individuals and injury. A calibration approach must be developed that will allow first responders to quickly determine the most likely treatment regimen for each individual’s injury and then use this treatment plan to drive the cooling technologies
• Rewarming: Regulatable rewarming technologies, together with individually refined schemes will need to be developed to avoid damaging the brain by warming it too quickly.
PHASE I: Develop preliminary design concept and determine technological feasibility of a therapeutic hypothermic technology for treating TBI in operational settings. The final report must include system performance metrics and plans for Phase I. Specifically the final report must include: a) discussion of the optimal tradeoffs between absolute cooling temperature, rate at which cooling temperature is attained, time at cooling temperature, and degree of injury progression, which may be unique for each person and injury; b) one or more approaches for developing a calibration procedure to account for variability of injury types, locations and individual neurophysiology; and, c) plans for developing a closed loop system that will auto (or semi-auto) regulate the cooling action (and rewarming). Optimizing per-unit cost will be considered a critical performance metric. Phase I plans should include preliminary design plans, key component technological milestones and plans for at least one operational test and evaluation. Phase I should also include the processing and submission of all required animal and/or human subjects use protocols.
PHASE II: Develop a prototype closed loop system based on the preliminary design from Phase I. All appropriate engineering testing will be performed, and a critical design review will be performed to finalize the design. Emphasis will be placed upon prototype functionality, accuracy and the ability to calibrate treatment delivery across injury types, locations and individual neurophysiology. Phase II deliverables will include: (1) a working prototype of the sensor, including calibration capability, (2) drawings and specifications for its construction, and (3) test data on its performance collected in one or more operational settings.
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: This technology will have broad application in military as well as commercial settings. Military applications of this technology include enabling medics and corpsmen, as well as non-medically trained military personnel, to significantly increase the likelihood of full recovery from TBI by reducing the deadly effects of secondary TBI processes. Commercial applications include providing a similar capability to first responders. One estimate of the per-year incidence of TBI ranges from between 100–600 people per 100,000 (5), a rate comparable to that of deaths from heart diseases (13). This technology would therefore provide first responders with an important tool for significantly improving the chances for a successful outcome in TBI and cover a much-needed technology in the commercial medical sector.
Commercial applications include providing a unique capability to first responders to reduce or eliminate the deadly effects of TBI's secondary injury processes during the time required to transport wounded patients to hospital/trauma centers. One estimate of the per-year incidence of TBI ranges from between 100-600 people per 100,000 (5), a rate comparable to that of deaths from heart diseases. This technology would therefore provide first responders with an important tool for significantly improving the chances for a successful outcome in TBI and cover a much-needed technology in the commercial medical sector. Customers include: Hospitals, Trauma Centers, EMT / medical technicians, nursing homes and extended care facilities, extreme sports.
REFERENCES:
1. Wagner, C (2003). “Brain injuries high among Iraq casualties” Army News Service,
accessed 12 Jul 09 at: http://www.militaryinfo.com/news_story.cfm?textnewsid=652
2. Zoroya, G (2008). “Delayed TBI diagnoses inspire a mission”. Army Times. http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/gns_tbi_072408/ 16 October 2008.
3. Park E., Bell J.D., Baker A.J. (2008). “Traumatic brain injury: Can the consequences be stopped?” Canadian Medical Association Journal 178 (9):1163–70.
4. Xiong Y, Lee CP, and Peterson PL. (2001). “Mitochondrial dysfunction following traumatic brain injury”. In Head Trauma: Basic, Preclinical, and Clinical Directions. Miller LP and Hayes RL, (Eds). John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York. Pages 257-280.
5. Park E, Bell JD, Baker AJ (April 2008). "Traumatic brain injury: Can the consequences be stopped?", Canadian Medical Association Journal 178 (9): 1163–70.
6. Ghajar J (September 2000). "Traumatic brain injury". Lancet 356 (9233): 923–29.
7. Maher J, & Hachinski V. (1993). Hypothermia as a potential treatment for cerebral ischemia: Cerebrovasc Brain Metab Rev. 5:277–300.
8. Zeiner, A., Holzer, M., Sterz, F., et al., (2000) Mild resuscitative hypothermia to improve neurological outcome after cardiac arrest. A clinical feasibility trial. Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest (HACA) study group. Stroke 31:86-94.
9. Hindman, B.J., Todd, M.N., Gelb, A.W., et al (1999). Mild hypothermia as a protective therapy during intracranial aneurysm surgery: a randomized prospective pilot trial. Neurosurgery 44:23-32.
10. Bratton, S., Chestnut, R.M. et al (2007) “Prophylactic Hypothermia” Journal of Neurotrauma. 24(supplement 1): S-21-S-25.
11. Adelson, P.D., Ragheb, J. et al (2005) Phase II clinical trial of moderate hypothermia after severe traumatic brain injury in children.
12. Wang, H., Olivero, W. et al (2004). Rapid and selective cerebral hypothermia achieved using a cooling helmet. J Neurosurg 100:272–277.
13. Centers for Disease Control. Heart Disease Facts and Statistics, accessed 12 Jul 2009 at: http://www.cdc.gov/heartDisease/statistics.htm.
KEYWORDS: Traumatic Brain Injury, Secondary Injury, Hypothermia, Closed Loop System, Temperature Regulation, Golden Hour
SB101-004 TITLE: High Performance Imaging for Small UAV Applications
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors
OBJECTIVE: Improve the performance of small UAV video payloads to reduce motion blur, improve image resolution and S/N and minimize size/weight/power.
DESCRIPTION: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become a vital tool for obtaining real time video imagery during reconnaissance and combat missions. The video streams from these aircraft are used to improve situational awareness by ground forces, target recognition and tracking, and, potentially, on-the-fly 3D scene model generation. While the demand for video increases, the size and payload capacity of small UAVs places stringent limitations on system components – including camera hardware, image processors and communications equipment.
Unfortunately, the quality of the UAV video is often compromised by motion blur, particularly on smaller, less stable aircraft where payload limitations make precision gimbals impractical. The resulting video makes it difficult to accurately detect and track objects of interest, and lacks the feature detail necessary for deriving meaningful target information. Furthermore, transmitting video to the ground can be bandwidth intensive depending on the image resolution, size and frame rate. These limitations can be mitigated to some extent by stabilization techniques to reduce motion artifacts, compression algorithms to reduce bandwidth and post processing to provide sharper images. But, much better approaches are needed to circumvent these limitations, while at the same time reducing the size/weight/power requirements of the payload.
Consequently, technologies are sought that will provide significant improvements in the quality and content of video (reduced motion blur, super-resolution and increased dynamic range) obtained from small UAVs, with an ultimate goal of producing 3D scene models in real time. Possible novel approaches include, but are not limited to : electronically steerable field of view (FOV) optics, high frame rate imagers, high-speed processing and new computationally efficient algorithms. Solutions must be consistent with the very low payload capacity and low power availability of small UAVs such as the Raven and Scan Eagle.
PHASE I: Develop approaches to dramatically reduce the effects of motion blur due to platform instability in small UAV video, while minimizing the transmission bandwidth. Perform analysis of performance to show how the approach is amenable to the very low size, weight and power availability in small UAVs.
PHASE II: Produce prototype system based on the design developed in Phase 1, and demonstrate the significant improvement in video quality metrics sufficient to generate 3D scene models. Demonstrate system performance and packaging consistent with size, weight and power limitations of small UAVs. Demonstrate TRL 5-6.
PHASE III: Improving video quality from small, relatively unstable platforms is applicable to all air, land and sea autonomous vehicles where payload size, weight and power is a premium. The improved video enables such platforms to produce 3D imagery, which is becoming vital to various DoD and commercial applications involving surveillance, situational awareness and tracking.
Improving video quality from small, relatively unstable platforms is applicable to all air, land and sea autonomous vehicles where payload size, weight and power is a premium. The improved video enables such platforms to produce 3D imagery, which is becoming vital to various DoD and commercial applications involving surveillance, situational awareness and tracking.
REFERENCES:
1. S. Farsiu, D. Robinson, M. Elad, and P. Milanfar, “Fast and Robust Multi-frame Super-resolution”, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 13, no. 10, pp. 1327-1344, October 2004.
2. S. Farsiu, M. Elad, and P. Milanfar, “Video-to-Video Dynamic Superresolution for Grayscale and Color Sequences”, EURASIP Journal of Applied Signal Processing, Special Issue on Superresolution Imaging, Volume 2006, Article ID 61859, Pages 1-15
3. C. Früh, S. Jain, and A. Zakhor, "Data Processing Algorithms for Generating Textured 3D Building Facade Meshes from Laser Scans and Camera Images", International Journal of Computer Vision, Vol. 61 No.2, Feb. 2005, pp. 159-184.
4. A. Mermillod-Blondin, E. McLeod, and C. B. Arnold, “High-speed varifocal imaging with a tunable acoustic gradient index of refraction lens,”Opt. Lett., 33, 2146-2148 (2008)
5. Philip Garrou, Microelectronic Consultants of North Carolina, Research Triangle Park, N.C. -- Semiconductor International, 10/1/2008: http://www.semiconductor.net/article/202251-How_Might_3_D_ICs_Come_Together_.php
KEYWORDS: Motion blur, super-resolution, 3D, UAV
SB101-005 TITLE: Tools for the Analysis of Social and Group Dynamics
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Develop tools to analyze, model, and predict the behavior of complex social coalitions to support military decision making.
DESCRIPTION: The US Army’s current operational concept is known as full-spectrum operations, and entails the simultaneous and continuous combinations of four elements: offense, defense, stability, and civil support. Each of these elements poses its own unique requirements, making more challenging the already difficult tasks of developing strategic, operational, and tactical plans. In particular, the goals of stability and civil support require planners to factor in the cultural and political dynamics of complex societies, forces with which the planners themselves are often only marginally familiar. Domestic political divisions in multi-cultural nation states combine with influences from neighboring nations and trans-national actors to produce dynamics that are difficult to understand, let alone predict. Creating paths to stability in such environments is challenging when the cultural forces and regional actors are familiar and well understood. For military decision makers responsible for developing long and short term plans without the benefit of such insights, it is clear that tools are needed.
This topic seeks novel technologies that can be brought to bear upon the problem of analyzing the dynamics of a complex society and gaining insights into the potential effects of policies, plans, and courses of actions in such environments. DARPA is interested in developing tools that can assist military planners and decision makers at any echelon by providing them with the kind of insights that high-level leaders currently have access to via human experts. A wide variety of technical approaches and solutions are envisioned and would be in scope, from networking technologies that can effectively put planners in touch with available experts; to modeling and simulation technologies that allow “what if” analysis; to innovative information storage and retrieval techniques for acquiring and applying lessons learned. What is essential is that the proposed technology provides a means for a reasonably intelligent non-expert to easily and effectively gain relevant expert-level insight into the potential behavior of a complex, dynamic society.
Inasmuch as this topic is focused upon providing advanced understanding to a non-expert, proposals should address practicality issues. Data-driven approaches need to address the availability of data and balance the difficulty of acquiring and inputting data against the value of the output. Similarly, modeling approaches need to address ease-of-use issues, as well as explain how models will be validated. Regardless of the technical approach, offerors need to make a compelling case that, once matured, the proposed technology can be made available to and used by non-specialists with the sort of abilities one would expect to find in senior enlisted men and military staff officers.
PHASE I: Establish technical feasibility of proposed approach. Document key challenges and develop plans to address them. Design prototype solution for Phase II implementation. Identify performance metrics for prototype development. Key deliverable: high-level design and implementation plan that is sufficient to demonstrate the scope and feasibility of a Phase II effort.
PHASE II: Finalize Phase I design. Implement prototype and demonstrate the effectiveness of key capabilities in multiple militarily-relevant settings.
PHASE III: Technologies for modeling Technologies for modeling
REFERENCES:
1. R. M. Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation, Basic Books, Inc.: New York, 1994.
2. J. Epstein, Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling, Princeton University Press, 2006.
3. I.O. Lesser, Coalition Dynamics in the War against Terrorism, The International Spectator, Feb. 2002.
4. R.E. Neustadt & E.R. May, Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers, Free Press, New York, 1986.
5. P. Schrodt, Forecasting Conflict in the Balkans using Hidden Markov Models. Pp. 161-184 in Robert Trappl, ed. Programming for Peace: Computer-Aided Methods for International Conflict Resolution and Prevention. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2006.
KEYWORDS: Social Dynamics, Predictive Analysis, Modeling & Simulating, Knowledge Management
SB101-006 TITLE: Adaptive Data Visualization Under Cognitive and Communications Bandwidth
Limitations
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Develop methods to automatically determine effective visualizations of patterns and events to overlay on a 2 and/or 3-D battlespace representation that automatically adapts to limitations on end-user cognitive and communications bandwidth, and embedded display devices.
DESCRIPTION: Modern commanders and the warfighters supporting them need to rapidly understand massive streams of geospatial data that must be registered in space (e.g., on a map) and time [1]. While there are ongoing efforts to integrate various data sources [2, 3, 4], establish graphics standards [5, 6] for overlaying and registering the data onto 2 and 3-D maps, and invoke data analytics [7, 8], comparatively little effort has been assigned to determining how to automatically adapt the display of visual information in a way that is optimized to the user and the types of data that must be displayed. As the military begins to follow the commercial proliferation of handheld devices, and its goal to digitize the battlefield and make every soldier a sensor [9], this problem becomes more acute – the value of visualization is lost if it is too crowded, not relevant, or streams too slowly for the end-user’s device. Thus, an automatic or supervised semi-automatic method is needed to visualize or display the most relevant data in the most effective way for the user, independent of his device or connection.
While there is a large body of work on methods for visualizing patterns in data [10], most are not easily adapted to resource-constrained users. Thus, new adaptive visualization technologies are needed that draw on understanding of human perception, visualization, and data overlay techniques [11], etc., such that cognitively and operationally effective geospatial visualizations can be determined on-the-fly, and conveyed to a variety of end-user devices [12]. Inroads in the commercial sector [13] have begun to address this in the display of traffic and map information in handheld devices [14, 15], but this does not take into account the user or his circumstances. This task requires the development of software that ingests standard geospatially tagged data and adapts the output for device-independent visualization. The software should use open standards both for communication and display, and be interoperable syntactically, and semantically. It should also allow the user to mark up or tag data that is visualized on the device.
In order to demonstrate adaptability, results should be able to be automatically visualized on at least two different devices with bandwidth connectivity and resolution capabilities that vary on the order of 10x (e.g., a PDA and a laptop). Visualizations should be compatible with an open standard map display. Data input and display should include event or object icons [16], such as Battle Command graphics [17] (e.g., FBCB2 or similar tracks with standard input format – can be simulated at 1s update), and at least two of the following: streaming H.264 video with metadata, textual input (or its’ representation) that has a geospatial component (e.g., logistics and supply information), geospatially tagged text documents or reports, and imagery compressed in MISB standard formats [18]. Testing in Phase II should include interim evaluation by intelligence experts to guide development.
PHASE I: Investigate viability and design approaches for automatic visualization technology. Demonstrate the feasibility of adaptive visualization of data registered to a 2D and/or 3D geospatial display using input types and output display devices listed in the description. Demonstrations can be specific to these cases and not fully automatic, but the results must be generalize-able and support automation. Focus on demonstrating, in a rigorously empirical and quantitative fashion, the capability of the technical approach.
PHASE II: Develop a prototype that demonstrates the efficacy of automatic and adaptive visualization technology based on Phase I results, data, and analysis. Evaluate the performance of the prototype through experimentation on operationally relevant data. All items shall be referenced to or overlaid on the geospatial representation. Offerors should indicate how they will deliver a system at TRL 5 by the conclusion of Phase II.
PHASE III: The capabilities developed under this effort could be used by any military, civilian, or government organization where automatic visualization of patterns in complex data is needed. Potential for commercialization of the technology exists in the development of a data visualization suite that can be marketed as part of an enterprise data management application package. Applications include: security, border protection, shipping and logistics management, land use and resource management, real estate and construction.
REFERENCES:
1. Enabling Battlefield Visualization: http://www.soartech.com/pubs/CCRTS05-Taylor-FINAL.pdf
2. Sensor and Data Fusion: A Tool for Information Assessment and Decision Making, Lawrence A. Klein (SPIE, PM 138, 2007).
3. DCGS-A; Army Posture Statement 2009;
http://www.army.mil/aps/09/information_papers/distributed_common_ground_system.html; http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2007netcentric/MalapitDCGS_A7Mar07.pdf
4. DCGS-AF 10.2; June 2007; http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/templates/Signal_Article_Template.asp?articleid=1332&zoneid=209
5. Google Gets Involved with Potential 3D Graphics Standard; 3/2009; http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/03/26/google-gets-involved-with-potential-3d-graphics-standard
6. Google, Mozilla back 3D interwebs; 3/2009; http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/24/3d_web_standards/
7. Data Analytics: A Huge Opportunity; 2/2007; http://www.information-management.com/issues/20070201/1075110-1.html
8. DARPA building search engine for video surveillance footage; 10/2008; http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2008/10/darpa-building-search-engine-for-video-surveillance-footage.ars
9. Every Soldier is a Sensor Simulation: virtual simulation using game technology; 3/2005; http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IBS/is_1_31/ai_n15729292/?tag=content;col1
10. A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods; http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html
11. Illuminating the Path; Thomas, J.; Crook, K.; http://nvac.pnl.gov/docs/RD_Agenda_VisualAnalytics.pdf , p.69, “Chapter 3: Visual Representations and Interaction Technologies”; http://nvac.pnl.gov/docs/RD_Agenda_NVAC_chapter3.pdf ;
12. House, D.H. Bair, A., and Ware, C. (2006) “An approach to the perceptual optimization of complex visualizations.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. 12(4) 509- 521.
13. PAVIS – Pervasive Adaptive Visualization and Interaction Service; Alimohideen, J.; 2004; http://www.evl.uic.edu/files/pdf/PAVISpaper_final.pdf
14. Real Time Change Detection and Alerts from Highway Traffic Data; Grossman, R., Sabala, M. et. al; 2005; http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=01560021
15. User aspects of adaptive visualization for mobile maps; http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3006/is_4_34/ai_n29388382/
16. MIL-STD-2525C; http://assist.daps.dla.mil/quicksearch/basic_profile.cfm?ident_number=114934
17. ABCS - Army Battle Command System; http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/abcs.htm
18. Reference the MISP 5.2;
http://www.gwg.nga.mil/misb/misppubs.htm
19. Additional Q&A from TPOC in response to FAQs (Posted 12/09/09)
KEYWORDS: Visualization; PDA, geospatial, display, cognitive, data integration, video, graphics, Battle Command, communication
SB101-007 TITLE: Experience-Based Advisory Systems for Ground Operations
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems
OBJECTIVE: Improve military unit ground operations performance by enhancing path-planning systems with adaptive guidance based on real-time and historical operations data.
DESCRIPTION: In both urban areas and open terrain, ground operations rely on effective path planning. Current path-planning systems model, analyze, and account for such critical parameters as terrain, travel time and distance, as well as some categories of potential threats, including terrain-based line-of-sight determination.
However, some of the most important path-planning considerations for hostile or uncertain territory are knowledge intensive and too fluid for current systems to model robustly. Examples include identifying terrain or locations that the enemy is likely to use for ambushes, times of day and areas where city streets are most congested, neighborhoods or districts with significant hostile unrest, and dangerous bottlenecks in the patrol area. The effort required to construct and maintain useful predictive models for regional, tactically dependent factors such as these is prohibitive. Worse, the results are brittle, especially as adversaries rapidly adapt to changing tactics, techniques, and procedures. This topic seeks innovative approaches to acquiring and maintaining knowledge that can enable route planners to take considerations like these into account, extending the ability of automatic planners to produce safe and efficient routes well beyond the state-of-the-art. With the ever-growing emphasis on monitoring and collection of data from the battlefield, this topic seeks innovative solutions to improve operational performance in path-planning systems. Solutions that can generate and maintain knowledge without requiring significant human intervention are of particular interest, including creative approaches to automated information gathering, distillation, and presentation. The goal is to find minimally-intrusive techniques for making user experiences transferrable, so that new staff will have access to previously-acquired knowledge that is unavailable in current systems. We seek to leverage the strengths of information systems at gathering, retaining, filtering, and prioritizing large amounts of data to enhance human decision-making.
This topic does not seek yet another solution to the general path-planning problem. Rather, it seeks to extend the set of environmental issues that affect choices made by existing planners to include those that, while important and potentially decisive, are beyond the state-of-the-art because it is too costly to acquire and maintain the relevant information We are particularly interested in minimally intrusive methods that can take guidance from a user who is familiar with the situation on the ground, and that use that information in appropriate future contexts. Successful efforts will enable automatic path-planning systems to remember what has happened recently and to create improved plans by relying on direct experience and the experiences of other units. Progress along these lines can be tracked in several dimensions: the number and scope of environmental considerations that can be added to the system; the ease-of-use (or lack of intrusion) for the user providing the environmental data; and the ability of the system to produce improved routes using this information.
PHASE I: Proof-of-principle demonstration that identifies the nature, source, and significance of the new information provided, and the benefits to be realized from this extension. Metrics regarding the additional overhead required and the benefits gained must be defined.
PHASE II: Develop a prototype implementation, demonstrating an operational path-planning system employing experience-based guidance. Provide a detailed plan for transition to operational use. The target Transition Readiness Level at the end of this Phase is TRL 6.
PHASE III: This work can extend to other path-planning and task-oriented applications such as logistics, as well as complex systems where experience is important in dealing with uncertainty and risk. This work can extend to other path-planning and task-oriented applications such as logistics, as well as complex systems where experience is important in dealing with uncertainty and risk.
REFERENCES:
1. Spaceborne path planning for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), Frederick, P. et al., Military Communications Conference, 2005. ISBN 0-7803-9393-7. Also available through IEEE Xplore: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
2. Planning Algorithms, Steven M. LaValle, 2006, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-86205-1.
3. Military route planning in battlefield simulation: Effectiveness problems and potential solutions, Zbigniew Tarapata, http://www.nit.eu/czasopisma/JTIT/2003/4/47.pdf
KEYWORDS: Military ground operations, path planning and navigation, statistical inference, time series analysis.
SB101-008 TITLE: High-Power High-Linearity High-Speed Photodetection Modules
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors
OBJECTIVE: Develop high-power highly linear photodetection arrays and demonstrate improved power-handling (>400 mA or yielding >5W output) and linearity (>60 dBm third-order intercept point) through photodiode advances and power combining for 2 – 20 GHz bandwidth microwave photonic applications at 1550 nm wavelength.
DESCRIPTION: The performance of several microwave photonic systems, such as phased array radars, opto-electronic oscillators, photonic analog-to-digital converters, and photonically-enabled arbitrary waveform generators, is limited by the power handling and linearity of high-speed photodiodes. Operation at high photocurrents improves the dynamic range and noise figure of the underlying analog photonic links. As a result, significant efforts have been devoted in the past to increase the power handling of photodiodes, denoted by their 1-dB compression point. However, the amplitude linearity of a photodiode, defined by its third-order output intercept point (OIP3), may significantly degrade as its 1-dB compression point is reached. Thus, it is desirable to simultaneously achieve highly linear and high power photodiode operation. Further, it is necessary to minimize the phase non-linearity of the photodiode, expressed as power-to-phase conversion factor (PPC), in order to minimize the excess phase noise and timing jitter in microwave photonic systems.
The objective of this research is to develop innovative photodetection modules that constitute significant advances in power handling, amplitude linearity, and phase linearity over the state-of-the-art for 2 – 20 GHz bandwidth applications. This topic envisions that these enhancements will leverage radio frequency (RF) power combining the output from an array of high-power photodiodes. For example, ignoring the excess insertion loss in the RF power combiner, a four-element array of photodiodes should effectively lead to a two-fold increase in 1-dB compression photocurrent and a 6-dB improvement in OIP3 over a single photodiode. However, practical concerns, such as excess insertion loss and broadband impedance matching, will lead to a limited (optimal) array size. As a result, enhancement in the performance of a single photodiode is also likely to be needed. Monolithic integration of photodiode arrays with RF power combiners may be required for enhanced performance, manufacturability, and reduced module form factor. Concurrent design of photodiodes and combiners may further enhance module performance.
PHASE I: Conduct a study to identify and quantify main sources of photodiode nonlinearity. Propose possible enhancements in photodetection linearity and power handling, including advantages, design constraints, limitations, and optimal use of an RF combiner. Develop an initial concept design and supporting analysis for a high-power highly linear photodetection device that could feasibly demonstrate performance targets in the range of OIP3 > 60 dBm, PPC < 3 rad/W at aggregate DC photocurrent of 400 mA, 5W output power, and 2-20 GHz frequency range.
PHASE II: Develop, fabricate, and test a high-power highly linear photodetection module with integrated (possibly monolithic) RF power combiner that demonstrates OIP3 > 60 dBm and PPC < 3 rad/W at aggregate DC photocurrent of 400 mA, 5W output power, and operates over 2-20 GHz. Deliver a fully functioning prototype at the end of Phase II that targets a Technology Readiness Level slightly above 4, where the module is packaged, RF connectorized, and fiber pigtailed to facilitate transportability and performance validation in a laboratory environment.
PHASE III: Study and implement refinement for manufacturability and environment robustness. Conduct enhanced demonstrations and application-specific validations for transition to specific military and commercial products. The photodiode arrays developed during this phase will address and benefit several military applications, such as phased array apertures, opto-electronic oscillators, photonic analog-to-digital converters, photonically-enabled arbitrary waveform generators and high-fidelity RF links. Commercial applications include wireless and cell phone antenna remoting. The vision is a near drop-in replacement of existing low-power photodetectors to dramatically improve system performance and the enabling of new photonic and fiber-optic based RF systems. Study and implement refinement for manufacturability and environment robustness. Conduct enhanced demonstrations and application-specific validations for transition to specific military and commercial products. The photodiode arrays developed during this phase will address and benefit several military applications, such as phased array apertures, opto-electronic oscillators, photonic analog-to-digital converters, photonically-enabled arbitrary waveform generators and high-fidelity RF links. Commercial applications include wireless and cell phone antenna remoting. The vision is a near drop-in replacement of existing low-power photodetectors to dramatically improve system performance and the enabling of new photonic and fiber-optic based RF systems.
REFERENCES:
1. Currie, M. and Vurgaftman, I., “Microwave phase retardation in saturated InGaAs photodetectors,” IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol 18, Issue 13, July 2006 Page(s):1433 – 1435.
2. Tulchinsky, D.A., Boos, J.B., Doewon Park, Goetz, P.G., Rabinovich, W.S., Williams, K.J., “High-Current Photodetectors as Efficient, Linear, and High-Power RF Output Stages,” Lightwave Technology, Journal of,Volume 26, Issue 4, Feb.15, 2008 Page(s):408 – 416
3. Beling, A., Campbell, J.C., Bach, H.G., Mekonnen, G.G., Schmidt, D., “Parallel-Fed Traveling Wave Photodetector for > 100-GHz Applications,” Journal of Lightwave Technology, Volume 26, Issue 1, Jan.1, 2008 Page(s):16 – 20.
4. K. J. Williams and R. D. Esman, “Design considerations for high-current photodetectors,” Journal of Lightwave Technology, Volume 17, Page(s): 1443-1454, 1999.
5. Datta, S.; Joshi, A.; Becker, D.; Howard, R., “High phase linearity, high power handling, InGaAs photodiodes for precise timing applications,” Optical Fiber Communication Conference Proceedings, 22-26 March 2009, Paper OWX2.
6. Klamkin, J., Ramaswamy, A., Johansson, L. A., Chou, H.F., Sysak, M. N., Raring, J. W., Parthasarathy, N., DenBaars, S. P., Bowers, J. E., and Coldren, L. A., “High Output Saturation and High-Linearity Uni-Traveling-Carrier Waveguide Photodiodes,” IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Volume 19, Issue 3, Feb.1, 2007 Page(s):149 – 151.
KEYWORDS: Photonics, photodetection, power combining, linearity, microwave, radio frequency
SB101-009 TITLE: Miniature UV Sources for Imaging Applications
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors
OBJECTIVE: Design, develop and validate critical hardware for the development of a miniature UV source at wavelengths below 300 nm. Such UV sources would have applications in LIDARS, imaging through smoke, dust, smog and brownouts. Very small form-factor UV source designs may also offer opportunity for free space communication. The development of miniature, efficient UV sources is critical for DARPA’s effort in advancing small active 3D systems for imaging in the UV regime.
DESCRIPTION: Ultraviolet LIDAR based imaging systems would be able to see though many natural or man-made obscurants. In general UV imaging system offers higher resolution compared to IR imagers. The lack of efficient and portable UV sources poses a technology barrier towards developing 3D active imaging technology. DARPA''s interest in 3D LIDARs is for hand held, helmet mounted or for UAV applications. Therefore, the critical element for such a technology would require development of solar blind detector arrays and miniature UV sources at <300nm of wavelength. This project addresses the development of sources. The source should be operated in pulsed mode with duration of 1-5 ns.
UV sources at less than 300 nm of wavelength can be developed as direct innovation in materials and device technology or through frequency doubling or quadrupling of lasers at longer wavelengths. Semiconductor or solid-state laser sources can be used for frequency doubling or quadrupling. The packaged source should be very small, and not exceed the size of a 14 pin telecom butterfly package, typically about 1x0.5x0.5" in size. The source should deliver pulse energies of about 0.1 to 0.5 mJ at PRF of 1-10 kHz with an average power of about 1W. Development of such sources should be completed through the phase I and II of this SBIR.
PHASE I: Prepare a Phase I feasibility design study to develop a miniature pulsed UV laser. Investigate designs and conduct analysis for implementation in Phase II. The feasibility study includes critical design review and would involve investigation of all aspects of such laser designs and approaches for miniaturization. The design and analysis must demonstrate the projected specifications as listed above. As part of the final report, plans for Phase II are to be proposed.
PHASE II: Based on the best design approach achieved in Phase I, build, characterize and deliver a complete prototype unit with performance metrics listed in the description section above. The fabricated sources will be characterized for pulse width, pulse energy and size, weight and power (SWAP).
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: In this phase, several units of the UV sources will be manufactured and a series of qualification tests will be performed to validate the design and its performance in a relevant military environment. The commercialization of this technology is expected to provide low cost, high performance UV sources for potential uses in, both military and commercial applications. Apart from many military uses, UV source can be used for atmospheric research, biomedical applications as well as sensor applications. The other applications would involve UV curing of epoxies and decontamination of biological species.
REFERENCES:
1. Tetsuo Kojima, Susumu Konno, Shuichi Fujikawa, Koji Yasui, Kenji Yoshizawa, Yusuke Mori, Takatomo Sasaki, Mitsuhiro Tanaka, and Yukikatsu Okada, "20-W ultraviolet-beam generation by fourth-harmonic generation of an all-solid-state laser," Optics Letters, Vol. 25, Issue 1, pp. 58-60 (2000).
2. Mikhail N. Slipchenko , Joseph D. Miller , Terrence R. Meyer , Naibo Jiang , Walter R. Lempert , and James R. Gord, “A MHz-Rate High-Power UV Laser Source for High-Speed Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence Spectroscopy,” American Physical Society, 2008 APS March Meeting, March 10-14, New Orleans, Louisiana.
3. M. Y. Shverdin , S. G. Anderson, S. M. Betts, D. J. Gibson, F. V. Hartemann, J. E. Hernandez, M. Johnson, I. Jovanovic, D. P. McNabb, M. Messerly, J. Pruet, A. M. Tremaine, C. W. Siders, and C. P. J. Barty, “Fiber-Based, Spatially and Temporally Shaped Picosecond UV Laser for Advanced RF Gun Applications,” Proceedings of Particle Accelerator Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2007.
4. Shu-Di Pan, Ke-Zhen Han, Xiu-Wei Fan, Jie Liu and Jing-Liang He, “Efficient fourth harmonic UV generation of passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4/Cr4+:YAG lasers” Optics & Laser Technology, Vol 39, Issue 5, 1030-1032, 2007
KEYWORDS: UV Source; LIDAR; UV Laser, Frequency doubled laser, Frequency quadrupled laser
SB101-010 TITLE: Non-Condensing Anti-Fog Hydrophobic Optical Coating
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors
OBJECTIVE: Investigate, identify, and demonstrate a high-quality, non-condensing, anti-fog, hydrophobic coating for optical elements, including silica and polycarbonate lenses.
DESCRIPTION: Many of the optical systems in use by the DoD can be temporarily disable due to fogging of the surface. While coatings and treatments exist to prevent fogging, they have limited effectiveness in preventing condensation on the surface or are temporary. The goal of this solicitation is to develop a high optical-quality coating that will prevent fogging and condensation on conventional elements such as silica and polycarbonate lenses. Solutions should be cost compatible with the optical elements and of sufficient quality to prevent noticeable light scattering, reduced light transmission, or wavefront distortion. Platforms for the coating include, but are not limited to, eye protection, optical scopes, and video imagers. In addition to an optical coating, other passive solutions will be considered.
PHASE I: Investigate the technical approaches for a permanent high-quality non-condensing, salt-tolerant, anti-fog, coating or treatment for optical components that significantly surpass the performance of current anti-fog coatings or treatments. The predicted performance of the proposed coating should be evaluated and compared with the existing technology. Proposals should identify the approach to be taken and provide estimated improvement metrics
PHASE II: Performers must demonstrate the ability to coat large optical elements with a scalable, low-cost manufacturing process. The demonstrated coatings should have a measurable performance advantage over existing techniques. Deliverables will include
1. A non-condensing, anti-fog, optical coating or treatment on a 50-mm diameter silica window. The coating quality should be sufficient to maintain the characteristics of a high-performance optical element.
2. An optical coating on conventional Army field eye protection goggles. The coating quality should not increase scattering, reduce light transmission, or result in image distortion.
3. A non-condensing, anti-fog, hydrophobic optical coating that is salt tolerant.
4. Measured performance of the coatings and comparison with current anti-fog coatings
At the end of Phase II, the TRL targets are; tasks 1-3 at TRL 6
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: This program would have significant impact for both DoD and commercial systems, in the ability to form a non-condensing anti-fog hydrophobic optical coating. Applications range protective eye gear to high-altitude imaging equipment.
REFERENCES:
1. David W. Davis, “Micro-environment condensation-induced obscuration on optics,” Proc. SPIE, Vol. 73260N (2009)
2. Y. Liu, X. Chen, and J. H. Xin, “Can Superhydrophic Surfaces Repel Hot Water?,” Journal of Materials Chemistry 19 (2009)
3. N. J. Shirtcliffe, G. McHale, and M. I. Newton, “Learning from superhydrophic plants: The use of hydrophilic areas on superhydrophobic surfaces for droplet control,” Langmuir (2009)
KEYWORDS: Optical Coatings, Anti-Fog, Non Condensing, Hydrophobic
SB101-011 TITLE: Simplified Interface for Navigation Devices for Addition of Aiding Sensors
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors
OBJECTIVE: Establish approaches for abstracting the interface between navigation filters and the measurement sensors that feed them. Establish communication and processing architectures to enable a navigation system to work flexibly, with a variety of sensors and sensor combinations, and to simplify the robust addition or subtraction of sensors. Develop alternate navigation algorithms, as appropriate, to improve performance with various aiding sensors.
DESCRIPTION: There is a growing need for low cost, robust, and seamless navigation solutions for military users, on a variety of platforms and in a variety of GPS denied areas, such as urban canyons, dense forests, inside buildings and underground. One of the primary barriers to flexibility in navigation systems is the high integration cost, both initially and whenever changes or upgrades are required. As lower cost inertial systems become available, enabled in part by MEMS developments, the ability to create inexpensive and flexible multi-sensor navigation systems depends on lowering the complexity of integrating additional aiding sensors. The intent of this effort is to provide an abstraction layer to enable a navigation algorithm or filter to work with a variety of sensors and sensor combinations, and to simplify the robust addition of sensors to (or subtraction from) a navigation system.
Potential aiding sensors include, but are not limited to: LADARs, laser rangers, Doppler sensors, video sensors, cameras (including camera phones), magnetic sensors, semantic information, and various RF signals. Most aiding sensors provide measures, either directly or after processing, of range and/or its time derivatives, measures of angle and/or its time derivatives, or relative measures of these quantities. A specific challenge to the development of an abstraction layer lies in the range of data that comes from such sensors. The data rate can range from <1 Hz to >10,000 Hz, depending on the sensor and the application. Additional challenges lie in the noise levels of the disparate data and the integration of the measurements into the model to show the dependence between the measurement and the states. Additionally, the system will need to provide a navigation performance of 3 m 3D rms for many indoor navigation applications, or less than 6 m 3D rms for GPS- like navigation applications.
The focus of this SBIR is on the need for a simplified interface to ease the integration of additional aiding sensors. This effort should include a combination of the following: the development of different or parallel navigation filters, the abstraction of sensor-specific processing algorithms, the development of processing approaches/architectures to segregate what processing is done where (e.g., in the navigator, in the sensor itself, or in both). Interaction with geospatial or other databases is encouraged. Given the above, it is anticipated that the cost of this integration system will be well below the current type of integrated sensor suite (less than $3,000, not including individual sensor costs).
PHASE I: Define the software architecture, including inputs/outputs, rates and timing requirements, for a personal navigation system that functions with six or more sensor inputs, for 72 hours or more, in the absence of GPS. Design a concept for the improved navigation integration system. Produce a conceptual design, based on a pre-existing navigator, and develop a detailed analysis of predicted performance. The performance should provide an instantaneous location error of 10 m 3D rms, or better, assuming a highly accurate geolocated reference every hour, with the geolocated reference located within 2 m 3D rms. The final report will include a Phase II plan and detailed software and notional hardware designs, to enable the improved navigation integration system.
PHASE II: Develop, demonstrate and validate a prototype improved navigator that incorporates the new integration software and hardware. Provide a detailed plan of a fully commercial version of the improved navigator. Target TRL 6. Phase II deliverables include preliminary and final design reviews, as deemed necessary by the sponsor(s), demonstrations at the end of years one and two, a commercialization plan and a final report. Target cost for the integration system minus the sensors is less than $3,000 at the 10,000th system at a rate of 3,000 units per year.
PHASE III: Fully develop a commercial version of the navigator. The technology and the easily extensible and modifiable navigator developed under this effort may result in a commercial product(s) that will help address both commercial and DoD program needs for developing fully integrated navigation devices.
REFERENCES:
1. Jun, M., State Estimation for Autonomous Helicopter via Sensor Modeling, Navigation, Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Vol. 56, No. 2, 2009, pp. 73-82.
2. Reference removed.
3. Reference removed.
4. Reference removed.
KEYWORDS: Navigation, abstraction, inertial measurement, GPS denied, personal navigation, Kalman filter
SB101-012 TITLE: Revolutionary Electric Propulsion
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes
OBJECTIVE: Accomplish a Phase I feasibility study for design, manufacture and/or test of highly efficient, light weight and long life electric propulsion (EP) thrusters with high thrust to power while at high specific impulse. Follow on efforts must model and simulate, manufacture and test the proposed technologies.
DESCRIPTION: In the past few decades, EP has been applied to progressively more spacecraft and more missions. The electrical energy used in the engine of spacecraft is most often derived from solar panels; however, spacecraft that use solar powered EP have a low thrust to weight ratio, limiting the acceleration rates and increasing the time required for orbit transfers. Even small changes in thrust to weight and thrust to power can significantly increase the speed of orbit transfers. The goal of this solicitation is to develop a means of increasing the thrust to power ratio and reducing the weight of EP systems while maintaining a high specific impulse. Revolutionary concepts are encouraged; however, as a minimum the proposed thrusters must provide higher thrust to power across the spectrum of specific impulse operating points while prolonging the operational lifetime of the thruster.
Specific objectives are a thruster specific mass of less than 3 Kg/kW while either demonstrating a thrust to power ratio of over 100:1 at a specific impulse of over 1,000 sec, or over 40:1 at 4,000 sec. For all approaches, the ability to throttle the thruster is highly desirable with performance interpolated between these extremes. The minimum lifetime of the proposed electric thruster shall be at least 20,000 hours with a goal of exceeding 50,000 hours at nominal operating conditions. It bears emphasizing that these are minimum goals and special consideration will be given to revolutionary concepts able to significantly exceed these goals.
The offeror must demonstrate a clear understanding of the component technologies, potential applications and associated benefits/liabilities. Component technology descriptions should include the materials, processes, and test and manufacturing approach including how all efficiencies will be measured and validated. The primary application of interest is improved longevity as well as augmented thrust to weight and power ratios optimized for military space systems such as constellations of small satellites or DARPA’s Fast Access Spacecraft Testbed (FAST). FAST provides a light weight (>130 W/Kg), high power (30 kW) solar electric array on orbit optimized for orbit transfer including a 200+ VDC bus. Offerors are encouraged to identify other applications of their technology as well.
PHASE I: Identify potential applications of the proposed EP technology as well as the potential improvements to these applications compared to technologies currently available. Although multiple applications are encouraged, to help assess the military utility, one of two applications should be evaluated: 1) use on distributed constellations of small satellites for maneuver, stationkeeping and constellation flying, and 2) use on space tug concepts to minimize orbit transfer times. The offeror shall identify efficient, life prolonging EP thruster concepts and technologies which can demonstrate the specified goals.
The offeror shall develop EP thruster designs that comply with the stated performance goals. Means of testing the feasibility of these designs as well as the proposed innovative technologies and alternatives shall also be identified. Technology and hardware risk reduction techniques at the component and/or system level should be identified, along with manufacturing and testing required to justify continuing the program into Phases II and III. Although not required, early Phase I hardware risk reduction is strongly encouraged. At a minimum, the Phase I deliverables must include system level applications, a complete EP thruster design and a Phase II development plan.
PHASE II: Finalize the Phase I design, then develop, fabricate and test a demonstration system that validates all major operating components. Testing should demonstrate the efficiency and longevity of the prototype hardware. The Phase II demonstration hardware should advance the state-of-the-art to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 or 5. Required Phase II deliverables will include the experimental prototype hardware and a final report including design data, manufacturing and test plan, test data, updated future applications, etc.
PHASE III: DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The offeror will identify military and commercial applications of the proposed innovative technology(s). Technology transition and/or commercialization opportunities will be identified along with the most likely path for transition from SBIR research to an operational capability. The path should include one or more commercial applications, as well as specific military applications and operational customers.
REFERENCES:
1. Fast Access Spacecraft Testbed, DARPA Program, Sep 2009, http://www.darpa.mil/tto/programs/fast/index.htm
2. Koppel. “Optimal specific impulse of electric propulsion.” Proceedings Second European Spacecraft Propulsion Conference, 27-29 May 1997 (pages 131-139), http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1997ESASP.398..131K
3. Electric Propulsion System - The Ion Drive (Ion Engine)- Future Space Propulsion Systems, http://www.thespacesite.com/space_electric_propulsion.html
KEYWORDS: Electric Propulsion, EP, Thruster, Specific Impulse, Propulsion, Electric, Isp, FAST.
SB101-013 TITLE: High Density Power Converter Electronics
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors
OBJECTIVE: Identify and develop innovative technologies to enable an extremely compact power converter capable of converting from low to medium voltages.
DESCRIPTION: DARPA is interested in developing the technologies necessary for enabling guided projectiles significantly smaller than any currently available today. A key requirement for this capability is producing the necessary voltage to drive actuators capable of directing command-controlled maneuvers. Example actuation technologies that benefit from higher voltage supplies include piezo-electric and electro-static micro-electromechanical devices motors and switches. DARPA is looking for concepts to provide the ability to up-convert from typical battery voltages of 2-5 Volts to 40-100 Volts.
The projectiles of interest range from diameters of 0.308" to 0.510", requiring extremely efficient packaging. Packaging techniques might include die level packaging, System In a Package (SIP), printed transformer with printed ferrite, micro electrical assembly, embedded components as well as others. The power convertor should be able to supply 1 Watt of average power across a load. Additionally, the technology employed must be capable of operation after experiencing setback loads of 75,000 g’s and set forward loads of 8,000 g’s.
PHASE I: Conduct an analysis and feasibility study of potential approaches to provide the required power converter in the necessary form factor. Demonstrate through analysis that the proposed power converter electronics have the capability to provide the necessary performance in the required size and environment. Perform a first order design with calculated weight, volume and power of the complete system, identify key materials and sub-systems requiring development, and present a credible plan to accomplish these tasks. Phase I deliverables include quarterly technical reports and a final summary report.
PHASE II: Develop the materials and sub-systems identified in Phase I and demonstrate a proof-of-concept prototype power converter capable of meeting the project goals. Additional Phase II deliverables will include quarterly technical reports and a detailed final report. The target Transition Readiness Level (TRL) of the technology at the conclusion of Phase II shall be TRL4 or higher.
PHASE III: The technology developed under this SBIR can be used in other military and civilian commercial applications to minimize power converter volume and mass of other small flight systems such as subsonic missiles, remotely piloted vehicles and micro-aerial vehicles. The technology developed under this SBIR can be used in other military and civilian commercial applications to minimize power converter volume and mass of other small flight systems such as subsonic missiles, remotely piloted vehicles and micro-aerial vehicles.
REFERENCES:
1. Sano, S. et al., “A 2nd Generation Micro DC-DC Converter”, Fuji Electric Review, Volume 53, No. 3, pp. 89-92.
2. Hayashi, Z. et al., “High-Efficiency DC-DC Converter Chip Size Module with Integrated Soft Ferrite”, The 2003 International Magnetics Conference (INTERMAG 2003).
3. Morrison, D., “Regulators Embed Inductors to Save Space and Ease Use”, Power Electronics Technology, July 2007, www.powerelectronics.com
KEYWORDS: Power converters, packaging, voltage converters, converter, projectiles
SB101-014 TITLE: Passivation of Laser Diode Micro Channel Coolers
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes
OBJECTIVE: Micro-channel coolers (MCC) are used to remove heat from high-power laser-diode (LD) bars. Develop a process to passivate the internal surface of copper MCC’s to prevent chemical and electro-chemical corrosion of the copper when the MCC is operated with filtered water as the coolant.
DESCRIPTION: Modern, high-power laser-diodes (LD) generate thermal-power densities approaching average values of 103W/cm2. The most common method to remove the waste heat is a copper micro-channel heat-exchanger with water as the working fluid[1]. Copper has a high value of thermal conductivity and a high value of electrical conductivity whereas “The best liquid coolant is deionized water because of its thermophysical properties.”[2]. However, copper chemically corrodes when exposed to water and the passage of electrical current through the water during LD operation results in electro-chemical corrosion[1,3]. The copper surface is typically plated with a film of nickel to prevent the corrosion of the copper and the nickel is subsequently plated with a film of gold to prevent oxidation of the nickel[4]. Ni/Au-plated copper micro-channel cooler have been found to corrode under operation for two reasons.
1. The heat-exchangers are formed from multiple layers of photo-etched copper which are diffusion bonded to produce the high-surface area micro-channels required to transfer the heat efficiently from the LD into the water and,
2. The micro-channel heat-exchanger is plated after the formation of the channels. The uneven, non-planar surfaces lead to non-uniform electric fields that interfere with the metal plating process. There are pin-holes in the Ni/Au films that allow local corrosion of the copper.
There is also local mechanical erosion of the Ni/Au films by the high velocity stream of water during operation of the heat-exchanger that also allows local corrosion of the copper. This erosion may be enhanced by small particulates in the water.
What is desired is a conformal, pin-hole free, thin-film(s) to passivate non-planar surfaces of copper against chemical and electro-chemical corrosion as well as mechanical erosion by high –velocity streams of water in the presence of an electrical current.
PHASE I: Develop and demonstrate a passivation process that will result in a pin-hole free protective coating that will enhance the useful lifetime of MCCs to survive when > 5X108 coulombs/cm2 of charge is injected into the LD. An example of such a protective coating is a high quality thin Al2O3 film deposited by ALD (atomic layer deposition) onto commercial copper micro-channel heat-exchangers in terms of thickness uniformity and pin-holes density. Phase I deliverables are two (2) commercial, Ni/Au-plated, copper heat-exchangers whose internal micro-channels are passivated with a thin film (~1000A) of Al2O3 deposited by ALD. Analysis determining the Al2O3 coating uniformity, how well the Al2O3 coating conforms to the micro-channel surface topology, and the pin-hole density of the Al2O3 film.
PHASE II: Finalize the design from Phase I in terms of thin film material selection, material parameters and deposition parameters. Fabricate a statistically meaningful number (10) of passivated MCC. Conduct life cycle and environmental testing under operation with filtered tap water and MCC acting as an electrode for > 100A of current.
PHASE III: Passivated microchannel coolers with demonstrated longer life will be used to remove the waste heat of high-power laser diode arrays (LDAs) that pump, solid-state, high energy lasers systems. Such military systems are currently being developed by the DoD, DARPA and the Joint Technology Office. These advanced coolers will also be inserted into high-power LDAs that pump solid-state lasers for material processing. The commercial market for this technology includes cooling high performance computers and power electronics. This would result in more compact, less expensive, and more efficient semiconductor hardware.
REFERENCES:
1. “Active cooling solutions for high power laser diodes stack”, Y. Karni, G. Klumel, M. Levy, Y. Berk, Y. Openhaim, Y. Gridish, A. Egali, M. Avisar, M. Blonder, F. Sagy, A. Gertsenschstein, Proc. of SPIE, 6876, 687604-1-687604-9 (2008)
2. “Thermal characteristics of liquid coolants for liquid loop cooling”, Qpdia Thermal Magazine, vol. 1, issue 10, (2007) (www.qats.com)
3. “Corrosion of copper by water”, P. Szakalos, G. Hultquist and G. Wikmark J. Electrochem. Soc. 10, C63-C67 (2007)
4. “Oxide development on copper coated contacts”, M. Reid, J. Punch, T. Galkin, K. Vakevainen, T. Stenberg, M. Vilen, M. J. Pomeroy, M. Mihov, IEEE 6th Int. Conf. on Thermal, Mechanical, and Multiphysics Simulation and Experiments in Micro-Electronics and Micro-Systems, EuroSimE, 330-334 (2005)
KEYWORDS: Heat-sink, heat-exchanger, passivation