SRCSGT | A | TRMC working with the PEO STRI is using this RFI to solicit technical concepts and approaches for future TSPI-related system and system-of-systems assessment capabilities that cannot be achieved today using GPS alone in an urban environment.

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF DECEMBER 05, 2008 FBO #2566
SOURCES SOUGHT

A -- TRMC working with the PEO STRI is using this RFI to solicit technical concepts and approaches for future TSPI-related system and system-of-systems assessment capabilities that cannot be achieved today using GPS alone in an urban environment.

Notice Date: 12/3/2008
Notice Type: Sources Sought
Contracting Office: Department of the Army, PEO STRICOM, PEO STRI Acquisition Center, PEO STRI Acquisition Center, 12350 Research Parkway, Orlando, FL 32826-3276
ZIP Code: 32826-3276
Solicitation Number: TRMC-RFI-09-0001
Response Due: 1/9/2009
Archive Date: 3/10/2009
Point of Contact: Glenda M. Torres, 407-380-4413<br />
Small Business Set-Aside: N/A
Description: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) Capabilities to Collect Time-Space-Position Information in GPS-Denied Urban Environments Posted Date: December 03, 2008 Response Date: January 09, 2009 Description Time-Space-Position Information (TSPI) systems which rely heavily on the Global Positioning System (GPS)-based data to locate and orient humans, ground vehicles, ground robots, and low flying air vehicles in urban environments face severe challenges when GPS radio frequency (RF) signals are attenuated or blocked due to non line of sight (NLOS) to GPS satellites. GPS signals may be degraded or completely blocked due to operation near or within manmade structures either above or below ground level. GPS RF signal reception may also be degraded by either intentional (e.g., jamming) or unintentional (e.g., multi-path reflected waves, cell phone usage) interference. For the purposes of this RFI, environments with unreliable or denied reception of GPS signals due primarily to NLOS RF signal blockage are identified as GPS-Denied environments. This RFI does not include situations where GPS RF signals are degraded primarily to interference. This will be addressed in a future RFI. The Defense Test Resource Management Center (TRMC), working with the PEO STRI Acquisition Center, is using this RFI to solicit technical concepts and approaches for future TSPI-related system and system-of-systems assessment capabilities that cannot be achieved today using GPS alone in an urban environment. TSPI approaches must consider the collection of highly accurate time, 3-dimensional location (space) information, and the orientation (position) of individuals, vehicles, weapons, sensors, etc. If real-time TSPI reporting is required, then the collection, transmission, and reception of data should be considered. TSPI would also include tag information of the entity being tracked. TSPI does not include other telemetry data such as system status, temperature, video, etc. For all three topics below, the following should be considered: "Various types of above ground urban infrastructures; including attached and closely spaced inner-city buildings, widely spaced high-rise office buildings, attached houses, closely spaced industrial/storage buildings, widely spaced apartment buildings, detached houses, and widely spaced industrial/storage buildings. "Various types of building designs and materials; including building walls with combinations of concrete, steel, wood, and stucco; A-frame roofs made of wood, asphalt shingle, slate, and/or ceramic tile; flat roofs made of wood, shingle, tar, and/or stones; roofs made with reinforced concrete. Reconfigurable urban test sites must also be considered. These sites usually use stackable metal (e.g., steel) containers. "Metro and utility tunnels which connect areas and buildings. Small tunnels may be made with 2-meter diameter concrete pipes, with 30 cm thick walls, and with the top of pipes under at least 2 meters of dirt and/or concrete/asphalt. Larger tunnels, as for metro systems, can accommodate trains and train stations are 5-10 meters below the ground. "Must operate in a tightly spaced areas cluttered with debris and electromagnetic interference (EMI) characteristic of a populated urban environment (i.e., unintentional interference). "Must operate in extremes of weather (e.g., extreme temperatures and precipitation). "Must be able to identify and track entities (soldiers, robots, vehicles, etc.) for up to four hours in a GPS-Denied status to the four positions accuracies stated in the following section (low, moderate, high, and very high fidelity). "It is desired that TSPI solutions be scalable to accommodate 100s to 1,000s of entities. "Solutions should attempt to avoid dependence on static, previously wired sites for emplacement of TSPI instrumentation. "Solutions should support distributed live-virtual-constructive (L-V-C) test environments utilized to match scope (e.g., city the size of Fallujah) and safety requirements (e.g., separating live close air support missions from live dismounted warfighters) of test events. Considerations include: -Sites for the test events are located in geographically separated areas. -Joint fires with wide area weapons may be either live or constructive at remote Air, Naval, or Army bases. -TSPI approaches should be sufficient to support real-time data collection (note: time latencies due to distributed networks should not be considered) TOPICS Responses of interest may address the following three topics or other related topics: 1.TSPI for dismounted personnel in operational urban test environments A capability is needed to acquire TSPI for dismounted personnel in operational urban test environments to assess the performance of blue force personnel, performance of blue force tracking systems, assessment of information systems (e.g., battle command systems that depict friendly forces, opposing forces, and non-combatants), interactions with non-combatants, as well as to support safety and test control. The TSPI should be seamless as personnel move from within to outside structures and vice-versa. TSPI should be of adequate resolution to identify/track individual friendly, enemy, non-combatants, and test personnel, including challenges such as: "For low fidelity TSPI (Position Accuracy +/- 1.0m) -Tracking safety and test personnel "For moderate fidelity TSPI (Position Accuracy +/- 0.25m) -Identifying the location and position of individuals leaning against a wall or in prone position on a floor "For high fidelity TSPI (Position Accuracy +/- 0.15m) -Delineating individuals grouped tightly together (e.g. squad/team is stacked against a wall before entering a room) -Identifying basic body orientation (standing, kneeling, lying down) of individuals "For very high fidelity TSPI (Position Accuracy +/- less than 0.10m, Orientation Accuracy +/- 0.1 degree)) -Identifying the more detailed body orientations (e.g., direction of head) of individuals -Identifying the orientation of handheld systems (e.g., weapons, sensors) -Recognizing hand and arm signals There is limited space, weight, and power capacity on the dismounted warfighters for TSPI equipment. 2.TSPI for small UAS in operational urban test environments A capability is needed to acquire TSPI for small (man portable) ground and air unmanned autonomous systems (UAS) in operational urban test environments to assess the performance of small UAS, performance of blue force tracking systems, and interactions with non-combatants; as well as to support safety and test control. TSPI should be of adequate resolution to identify/track individual small friendly and enemy UAS, as well as small UAS that may be supporting safety and test data collection. Challenges for TSPI will be similar to those identified for the dismounted Warfighter since they are similar in size and will be interacting within the same battlespace (i.e. inside/outside buildings, tunnels, narrow alleys, etc.): "For low fidelity TSPI (Position Accuracy +/- 1m) -Support of tracking for range safety and test auxiliary UAS (camera, sensor platform, etc) "For moderate fidelity TSPI (Position Accuracy +/- 0.25m) -Identifying the location and position of UAS close to walls or on the floor for ground systems or next to the ceiling for air vehicles "For high fidelity TSPI (Position Accuracy +/- 0.15m) -Delineating UAS and other UAS or UAS with humans grouped tightly together "For very high fidelity TSPI (Position Accuracy +/- less than 0.1 m, Orientation Accuracy +/- 0.1 degree) -Identifying the more detailed orientations (e.g., orientation of chassis or airframe) of UAS -Identifying the orientation of UAS subsystems (e.g., weapons, sensors) There is somewhat less available space, weight, and power capacity on small UAS as with dismounted warfighters for TSPI equipment. 3.TSPI to support real time casualty assessment (RTCA) in operational urban test environments A capability is needed to acquire TSPI for dismounted personnel, vehicles, small UAS, micro UAS, and wide-area weapons (e.g., joint fires, grenades, mortars, mines) in operational urban test environments to assess RTCA. Current RTCA systems for urban operations include the use of laser tagging systems, paint-ball tagging, wide area munitions effects (e.g., RF-signal, simulation-based assessments), and subjective judgments (e.g., controller evaluations). Laser tagging systems have many shortcomings, including dependence on position/functioning of laser sensors and the inability of lasers to shoot through smoke, paper, tent material, thin walls, etc. Requirements for TSPI include: "Locations of individuals for assessing the effects of wide area weapons (e.g., joint fires, grenades, mortars, IEDs) requires less accuracy than for dismounted personnel, depending on the application. (Position Accuracy +/- less than 0.25 m) "Locations of dismounted personnel (friendly, threat, and civilian) must be reported so they are accurately identified within a room/building, when they are indoors, and not partially in a wall or on the wrong side of a wall. Also greater accuracy/precision will be needed to identify a persons location when he is leaning against a wall or in a prone position on the floor. (Position Accuracy +/- less than 0.15 m) "The orientation of each player (standing, kneeling, crawling, facing in which direction, etc.) is needed. (Position Accuracy +/- less than 0.1 m) "The orientation of all weapons (handheld and vehicle/platform mounted) must be known. [NOTE: Orientation can be defined as the 3-dimensional location of the base of a weapon/sensor as the pivot point, then from that pivot point, define the weapons/sensors azimuth (measured clockwise from a north base line e.g., true north) and angle above the horizontal plane of the shooter. For example, the error in orientation for a sniper weapon can be no more +/- 0.1 degree in azimuth and angle above the horizontal plane of the shooter.] "To support the display of simulated information to live dismounted players, the orientation of an individuals head (angle with respect to the horizon, azimuth/direction of viewing) must be known +/- 0.1 degree. RESPONSES Respondents to this RFI are encouraged to be as succinct as possible while at the same time providing actionable insight. Submissions shall be sent in the form of text documents in MS Word, Powerpoint presentations, brochures, or any other similar material (no particular format required). Responses may be emailed or mailed using conventional postal delivery services. Information sent via email should be sent to Glenda M. Torres at glenda.torres@us.army.mil. However, if size constraints on attachments prevents the use of email submission, conventional mail should be used. Respondents have a choice of sending one paper copy and/or one electronic copy (in Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, and/or Microsoft PowerPoint on a CD) of the RFI response. All documents and disks must be clearly labeled with RFI NG-TSPI GPS-Denied, respondents organization, and points of contact. The conventionally mailed RFI response must be submitted to: PEO STRI Acquisition Center - SFAE-STRI-KOT, ATTN: Glenda M. Torres, 12350 Research Parkway, Orlando, FL 32826-3276. Responses to this RFI are due no later than 4:00 PM, Eastern Time, Orlando, FL, on 09 January 2009. DO NOT PROVIDE ANY PROPRIETARY INFORMATION DO NOT PROVIDE ANY CLASSIFIED INFORMATION TECHNICAL INQUIRIES TO THIS RFI SHOULD BE SUBMITTED TO GERRY CHRISTESON (Contact info below). SUBMISSION INQUIRIES TO THIS RFI SHOULD BE SUMITTED TO MS. GLENDA TORRES (Contact info below). DISCLAIMERS AND IMPORTANT NOTES This is an RFI issued solely for information and new program planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. Respondents are advised that TRMC is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received, or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted under this RFI. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e) responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. Responses to this RFI may be used to develop a future Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). Submission of a response is strictly voluntary and is not required to propose to subsequent BAAs (if any) on this topic. Responses to this RFI do not bind TRMC or the PEO STRI Acquisition Center to any further actions, to include posting a BAA or requesting follow-on proposals from vendors responding to this RFI. Submissions may be reviewed by the Government (TRMC) and Systems Engineering and Technical Assistant (SETA) contractors such as Scientific Research Corporation, The MITRE Corporation, MacroVision Inc., and CNS Technologies, Inc. As required, non disclosure statements will be established with SETA contractors or any other type of support personnel (such as Federally Funded Research Development Centers personnel). Points of Contact Mr. Gerald Christenson Test Resource Management Center 3010 Defense Pentagon Washington, DC 20301 Tel. 703-601-5259 gerald.christeson@osd.mil Ms. Glenda Torres Senior Contracts Specialist Acquisition Center - SFAE-STRI-KOT U.S. ARMY PEO STRI Tel: 407-380-4413 DSN: 960-4413 glenda.torres@us.army.mil
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Place of Performance: Address: PEO STRI Acquisition Center 12350 Research Parkway Orlando FL<br />; Zip Code: 32826-3276<br />
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A -- TRMC working with the PEO STRI is using this RFI to solicit technical concepts and approaches for future TSPI-related system and system-of-systems assessment capabilities that cannot be achieved today using GPS alone in an urban environment.