Software Services and System Upgrade for the DSR Virtual Reality Lab for Human-Robot VR Simulation

NOTICE OF INTENT TO ISSUE AN ORDER/CONTRACT. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Morgantown, West Virginia intends to issue a contract to Mechdyne Corp, 11 E Church St Ste 4000, Marshalltown, IA 50158-5011.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), has a requirement for Software Services and System Upgrade for the Division of Safety Research (DSR) Virtual Reality Lab for Human-Robot Virtual Reality (VR) Simulation at NIOSH West Virginia.NAICS code 541512 Computer Systems Design Services with a small business size standard of $27.5 million.The services contemplated under this contract are considered to be an "Other Function" as defined by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in OFPP letter 11-01 and by HHS in Acquisition Policy Memorandum 2012-01.Title: Software Services and System Upgrade for the DSR Virtual Reality Lab for

Human-Robot VR SimulationSECTION 1 - BACKGROUNDNIOSH is committed to conducting research utilizing state-of-the-art tools. NIOSH Division of Safety Research (DSR) purchased and installed equipment and software to establish the DSR Virtual Reality (VR) CAVE System. The VR CAVE System hardware/software creates an immersive 3D environment. The DSR VR lab was first established in the late 1990's and has continued to be upgraded over the past years to keep the system at top peak performance. The lab provides highly immersive VR environments that can be used to conduct cutting edge research investigating occupational safety issues.Industrial robots have been a significant part of the workplace for decades, but their adoption is increasing rapidly, and new types of robots has been introduced to various workplaces. Traditional industrial robots have operated in fixed locations and are separated by safeguard or fence. Thus interaction between human workers and robots is minimal in traditional robotic workplaces. With rapid advances in robotic technologies, collaborative and mobile robots are now being designed to work in close cooperation, share work areas, and physically interact with humans. Hardware upgrade and software services are needed for the current DSR VR CAVE system for conducting human-robot interaction experiments. DSR researchers will use the upgraded DSR VR CAVE system to examine human behaviors and performance while interacting with collaborative and mobile robots in shared work areas safely and effectively.SECTION 2 - PURPOSEThe purpose of this requested service work is to 1) develop the 3D virtual tasks and environments for human-robot interaction simulation and 2) upgrade the current VR system that are necessary for quality of the simulation. The software content and hardware upgrades will be implemented in the DSR VR lab located in NIOSH Morgantown facility within a year of contract award.SECTION 3 - SCOPE OF WORKA service contract will be pursued for the development of 3D content and simulation scenarios and the hardware system upgrade for the VR lab. The software development tasks include 1) creating 3D content, 2) implementing system mechanisms for VR interaction, 3) simulating and integrating robot movements in the VR system, and 4) implementing automatic data collection and metric calculation. The hardware upgrade involves providing and integrating advanced display and tracking system in the VR CAVE system. The software services and hardware upgrade will need to be completed within a year of contract award.SECTION 4 - TASKS TO BE PERFORMEDSoftware Service:The contractor shall provide software services to design and implement the VR platform for human-robot interaction simulation. The software services include the integration of hardware functions for simulating robot control, creating 3D content and environment, presenting virtual instruction for experiment participants, and integrating VR data-collection mechanisms. The Unity game engine will be the basis of the interactive environment. The specific tasks to be performed include the following:1) Development of 3D ContentA. The contractor shall supply 3D models of two commercially available robots: UR-series collaborative robot from Universal Robots and Freight mobile base robot from Fetch Robotics. The contractor shall augment these models to implement virtual robot articulation for animated interactions during experiment trials. The contractor will ensure that the experiment's software maintains the required rendering performance. The 3D robot models will have the following varying designs and condition:a. Robot sizes in height/width or reachb. Robot movement speedc. Robot movement trajectoryB. The contractor shall create virtual manufacturing or warehouse work areas. The virtual work areas serve to cement the participant within a virtual space larger than just the physical constraints of the CAVE, and they may include ambient noise such as sounds of machinery, muffled voices, and other industrial audio cues.C. The contractor shall design and implement 3D content required to position racks, workstations, and target objects within the environment, which participants will interact with throughout experiment trials.D. The contractor shall build and display survey questions as interactive 3D panels within the virtual environment.2) Simulation and Automation of Robot Operation and Human Operator InteractionThe contractor shall develop and implement autonomous and interactive robot simulation for human-robot interaction study. The contract shall develop the simulation scenarios and mechanisms and integrate them into the existing CAVE VR system for operating experiments. Conducting experiments and collecting data are not part of the tasks for this service contract.A. Robot Simulation and AutomationThe contractor shall simulate the robot operation using existing third-party tools such as Gazebo or ROS. The contractor shall configure the robots with movement specifications to simulate them within Unity in the CAVE. Robot movement specifications include the following:a. Robots shall maintain the set minimum safety separation distance from a human subject.b. Robots shall stop if direct contact proximity is attained.c. Robots shall resume the motion if safety condition is attained.B. Participant Interaction and OrientationThe contractor shall implement the participant interaction mechanisms through the uses of the tracking system and gamepad controller. These interactions will include picking up and grabbing objects, moving them into a specified destination, and navigating through the virtual environment. In addition, the contractor shall develop and implement virtual orientation scenarios that will introduce experiment participants to the interactions and virtual environment. The orientation will provide practices with the following activities:a. Walking through the virtual work area.b. Picking up and releasing a target object into place.c. Providing answers to survey responses.d. Trigger emergency stop on mobile robots.e. Trigger emergency stop on collaborative robots.3) Data RecordingThe contractor shall implement automatic data collection mechanisms in the VR CAVE system to record the positions of robots, objects, and participants within the 3D environment at regular intervals. The data to be collected include the 3D tracker positions and orientations, virtual robot positions and orientations along with joint angles, current velocities, separation distance from robots, and notification about collisions or emergency stop events. Participants' responses to virtually displayed survey questions shall be collected using the controller buttons. The contract shall develop the mechanisms and integrate them into the existing CAVE VR system for operating experiments. Conducting experiments and collecting data are not part of the tasks for this contract.The contractor shall develop and implement specific VR scenarios and tasks for human-robot interaction study protocol that will be provided by NIOSH. The experiment consists of the three experiments: 1) preliminary experiment, 2) experiment 1, and 3) experiment 2. The contractor shall design the experiment trials using the 3D content and robot simulation and automation frameworks discussed above implement the logic for conducting the experiment. The contractor shall utilize a multi-phased approach to ensure the quality of 3D content and simulation scenarios. The high-level activities for each phase are described below. Details of each phase will be further defined after award.Phase 1:• Identify critical frameworks and technologies.• Mockup the warehouse• Mockup survey questions and responses• Prototype 3D content and experiment layouts• Implement participant operation simulation.Phase 2: Implement Preliminary ExperimentPhase 3: Utilize VR framework and lessons learned from Phase 2 to implement Experiment 1Phase 4: Utilize VR framework and lessons learned from Phase 3 to implement Experiment 2Phase 5: Support the execution of the experiment protocolSystem Hardware Upgrade:The VR CAVE system hardware upgrade consists of the following three tasks:1) Display System Upgrade:The contractor shall provide hardware upgrade for the VR display system. The tasks include the mechanical design, procurement, and integration of the following items:• Display- Four 3 Chip DLP Laser Projectors- 1920 x 1200 Native Resolution- 12,000 Lumens- 2,000:1 Contrast Ratio- 20,000 Hour Light Source- 3 Year Manufacturer's Parts Warranty• Projection Structural System- Custom Structural Changes to Accommodate New Projectors- Black Powder Coating for Reflection Avoidance• Video Extension System- Eight Digital Video Twisted Pair Extension Systems• 3D System- Twelve Pair 3D RF Active Shutter Glasses- RF Emitter- Sync Extension System- System Synchronization• Control System- Controller- Network Switch- 10" Wired Touch Panel- Base User Interface2) Tracking System Upgrade:The contractor shall provide hardware upgrade for the tracking system of the current VR CAVE. The tasks include the procurement, application engineering, and integration of the following items:• Optical Tracking Cameras with Mounts• Controller• Software DTrack2 with license• Room calibration Set with Case• ART FlyStick• 3D Glasses with Marker Set• Warranty extension to 3 years3) Computer System Upgrade:The contractor shall provide hardware upgrade for the VR CAVE computer system including the following items:• 4 RU Tower• CPU TBD• 128GB RAM• SSD, 2.5", 512GB• HDD, 3.5", 4TB• 10G-BaseT NIC• ASUS Xonar 5.1 Audio Interface Card• OS, Microsoft Windows Professional x64 SP1• Rack mounting rails• 3 GPU, NVIDIA TBD• NVIDIA Sync KitSECTION 5 - GOVERNMENT FURNISHED MATERIALSN/ASECTION 6 - PERIOD OF PERFORMANCETwelve (12) months.**********************This project is supported by a Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) to Mechdyne Corp., under authority of FAR Parts: 13.106-1(b), 13.501(a), 41 U.S.C. 1903, and 41 U.S.C 3304(a)(1).All vendors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov , prior to an award of a federal contract.This is not a request for competitive quotations; however, the Government will review any/all product, capabilities, and pricing information submitted prior to the closure of this notice. A determination by the government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.Responsible sources that believe they possess the expertise and capabilities identified above are hereby afforded the opportunity to submit to the Contracting Officer within 15 days from the posting date of this notice, their written capabilities statement and pricing information in the format they choose, not to exceed 10 pages. Please forward product and pricing information to Diane Meeder, Contracting Officer, CDC, OAS, through email at Dmeeder@cdc.gov.If no affirmative responses are received by the due date, in accordance with FAR Parts 12, 13 and 13.5 an order/contract and/or negotiations will be conducted with Mechdyne Corp, 11 E Church St Ste 4000, Marshalltown, IA 50158-5011.Any responses should be emailed to Diane Meeder at DMeeder@cdc.gov by April 2, 2019 at 2:00 P.M. ET.