Tethered UAS (Te-UAS)

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMYSMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAMSBIR 21.4 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)Small Business Opportunity (SBO) Announcement                        July 29, 2021: SBO issued for pre-releaseAugust 26, 2021: Army begins accepting proposalsSeptember 22, 2021: Deadline for receipt of proposals no later than 12:00 p.m. ETIMPORTANTDeadline for Receipt: Proposals must be completely submitted no later than 12:00 p.m. ET, September 22, 2021. Proposals submitted after 12:00 p.m. will not be evaluated. The final proposal submission includes successful completion of all firm level forms, all required volumes, and electronic corporate official certification. Classified proposals will not be accepted under the DoD SBIR Program. This BAA and the Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP) sites are designed to reduce the time and cost required to prepare a formal proposal. The DSIP is the official portal for DoD SBIR/STTR proposal submission. Proposers are required to

submit proposals via DSIP; proposals submitted by any other means will be disregarded. Proposers submitting through this site for the first time will be asked to register.The Small Business Administration, through its SBIR/STTR Policy Directive, purposely departs from normal Government solicitation formats and requirements and authorizes agencies to simplify the SBIR/STTR award process and minimize the regulatory burden on small business. Therefore, consistent with the SBA SBIR/STTR Policy Directive, the Department of Defense is soliciting proposals as a Broad Agency Announcement.SBIR/STTR Updates and Notices: To be notified of SBIR/STTR opportunities and to receive e-mail updates on the DoD SBIR and STTR Programs, you are invited to subscribe to our Listserv by visiting https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/submissions/login and clicking “DSIP Listserv” located under Quick Links.Help Desk: If you have questions about proposal submission using DSIP, please contact the DoD SBIR/STTR Help Desk at DoDSBIRSupport@reisystems.com. The Help Desk is available Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET.Topic Q&A: From July 29, 2021 to August 25, 2021, this SBO is issued for Pre-Release with the names of the topic authors. During the pre-release period, proposing firms have an opportunity to contact topic authors through https://calendly.com/aal-tech-russ/tuas-tpoc to schedule a time to ask technical questions about specific BAA topics. Questions should be limited to specific information related to improving the understanding of a particular topic’s requirement. Proposing firms may not ask for advice or guidance on solution approach and you may not submit additional material to the topic author. If information provided during an exchange with the topic author is deemed necessary for proposal preparation, that information will be made available to all parties through DSIP Topic Q&A module.Once the Army begins accepting proposals on August 26, 2021, no further direct contact between proposers and topic authors is allowed unless the Topic Author is responding to a question submitted during the pre-release period. However, proposers may submit written questions through the DSIP Topic Q&A module at https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/submissions/login. The DSIP Topic Q&A for this BAA opens on July 30, 2021 and closes to new questions on September 8, 2021 at 12:00PM ET. Once the BAA closes to proposal submission, no communication of any kind with the topic author or through Topic Q&A regarding your submitted proposal is allowed.This Small Business Opportunity (SBO) is issued under the Army Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for SBIR/STTR 21.4. All proposals in response to the technical area(s) described herein will be submitted in accordance with the instructions provided under 21.4, found here:a. EligibilityThe eligibility requirements for the SBIR/STTR programs are unique and do not correspond to those of other small business programs. Please refer to Section 3.1, Eligible Applicants, of BAA 21.4 for full eligibility requirements.Multiple venture capital operating companies (VCOCs), hedge funds, or private equity funds who own a majority part of a company, are not eligible to apply under this BAA. Companies that are more than 50% directly owned and controlled by one or more individuals (who are citizens or permanent resident aliens of the United States), and have VCOCs, hedge fund, or private equity funds who whole a minority stake in the business are eligible to apply under this BAA.b. Anticipated Structure/Award InformationPlease refer to Section 1, Funding Opportunity Description, provided in BAA 21.4 for detailed information regarding SBIR/STTR phase structure and flexibility.For this SBO Department of the Army will accept Phase I proposals for the cost of up to $200,000. This includes a 3-month base period not to exceed $200,000 and no option period.  At the completion of their Phase I period of performance, companies can submit a phase II proposal for the cost of up to $1,500,000 for a 12-month period of performance. Proposers should refer to Section 4, Application and Submission information, of BAA 21.4 for detailed proposal preparation instructions. Proposals that do not comply with the requirements detailed in BAA 21.4 and the research objectives of this SBO are considered non-conforming and therefore are not evaluated nor considered for award.Phase I proposals shall not exceed 10 pages in length, and Phase II proposals shall not exceed 15 pages in length for the technical volume. Proposers can submit an optional slide deck of 10 slides in Volume 5: Supporting Documents. The slide deck can contain information on the technical approach, the team, commercialization plans, or relevant technology/research the proposers have developed, and it can contain additional/complementary information to the technical volume. If a proposer elects to submit a slide deck, its information will be used in the evaluation process. Please refer to Appendix A and Appendix B of BAA 21.4 for detailed instructions on proposal preparation. More detailed instructions for what information to include in your Phase I proposal are attached to this SBO.Discretionary Technical and Business Assistance (TABA) will not be offered under this SBOc. Evaluation of ProposalsSection 5, Evaluation of Proposals, in BAA 21.4 provides detailed information on proposal evaluation and the selection process for this SBO.d. Due Date/TimeFull proposal packages (Proposal Cover Sheet, Technical Volume, Price/Cost Volume inclusive of supporting documentation, Company Commercialization Report (CCR), optional slide deck in Supporting Information, and Fraud, Waste and Abuse documentation) must be submitted via the DoD SBIR/STTR Proposal Submission website per the instructions outlined in BAA 21.4 Section 4.3 Electronic Submission no later than September 22, 2021 at 12:00pm ET.A214-041      Title: Tethered UAS (Te-UAS)Objective (30 words max)Develop and advance Te-UAS enabling technologies that make the capability more suitable and capable to operate in combat.Description: Tethered UAS provide unique capabilities over traditional Small Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) in that they can provide persistent operation, increased resiliency, and improved sensor bandwidth. These three aspects are vital for future Army combat operations, especially when combined onto ground combat vehicles. Successful advancement of Te-UAS would enhance U.S. Army modernization priorities Soldier Lethality (SL), Network (N), and Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV). NGCV is seeking to field multiple manned and unmanned vehicles which will need to increase their situational awareness to provide earlier detection and warning of incoming threats, expand their communication range, and enhance the navigability of the platforms in non-austere environments. Tethered UAS are Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) that are attached to a ground platform (stationary or mobile) by a tether link which provides power and data typically via physical cable. Tethered UAS are treated as modular mission payloads capable of supplementing a combat vehicle with a wide range of persistent sensors tailored to the mission objective. In order to achieve the operational suitability, Te-UAS need to be able to share and integrate their data with the operating picture of the attached ground vehicle (GV) and larger formation. This collaborative sharing will enable greater mobility for the paired team using coordinated maneuvers to avoid obstacles, prevent the tether from becoming entangled, and complete the mission. Currently demonstrated Te-UAS are lacking in this coordinated operation and rely on open environments or stationary operations for a successful mission.Primary obstacles to overcome for successful operation of Te-UAS is the need for appropriate sensor configurations on both the GV and UAS for safe flight through fusion and filtering of sensor data to create an accurate common operating picture for navigation and planning as well as the control algorithms to steer the Te-UAS to avoid potential hazards in the path. Since the GV may or may not be manned, this entire process needs to be automated and done at a level of trust acceptable to the operators. Additionally, the ability to share and integrate these common operating pictures to both warfighters and other robotic systems is needed to further enhance mission success.The design goals of this effort are the creation of sensor configuration concepts and software algorithms for generating a common operating picture as well as safe flight of the Te-UAS while the GV is in motion. These designs should be able to support the GV in urban, suburban, and rural environments traveling at speeds up to 45 mph with the Te-UAS airborne. The limitations for sensors are that they must be currently procurable, TRL 6 or greater when integrated to a UAS or GV and be feasible to mount on the designated platform. There is no guideline on the number of sensors, but cost should be considered in the SIBR proposals. Additional limitations of the Te-UAS and UGV performance will be provided to vendors to further constrain the problem. Proposals for the common operating picture should tolerate and/or exclude poor quality data (temporal or spatial), provide cyber resiliency, be scalable for additional sensor modalities.Phase IDesign a preliminary architecture consisting of sensors and software that would enable on the move operation (<45mph) with obstacle avoidance (Urban/Rural areas) for an unmanned ground vehicle with a deployed tethered UAS by developing a common operating picture for navigation. The architecture should be developed with the intent to construct algorithms that can be ran real-time in a simulation environment or a real vehicle. Phase 1 deliverables include monthly progress reports describing challenges, technical risk, and progress against schedule, a final technical report, and proposed sensor specification sheets.Phase IIRefine the preliminary architecture selected in Phase 1, develop and deliver software that would meet the objectives in physical or virtual space. The architecture refinement should include adding capability to tolerate and or reject poor quality data without degradation, have persistent memory of an area, and collaboration with another vehicle pair. Required Phase 2 deliverables include all necessary components (hardware and software) to run the system in a government simulation environment, a final report, and monthly progress reports. The software will be tested in urban, rural, and suburban environments to evaluate performance with various obstacles and lighting conditions.Phase IIIDemonstration of the approach which was best able to collaboratively navigate multiple Te-UAS/UGV teams through unknown, previously known but changed and known environments on actual NGCV vehicles such as the Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) surrogate systems and/or the Mission Enabling Technology Demonstrator operating with paired UAS operating with the GVSC managed Warfighter Machine Interface.Phase III goals will include:Demonstrated collaborative autonomy on a government test range.Performance measurement in a variety of different excursions where changes to the environment occur such as road blocks or simulated enemy vehicles are placed.Simulated jamming and data manipulation occur from an adversary.Test reports detailing solution performance.Product documentation detailing operation of prototype.Monthly progress reports describing all technical challenges, technical risk, and progress against the schedule.Final technical report.Keywords: Collaborative Autonomy, Robotics, Tethered UAS, Teaming, UAS, UGV, Next Generation Combat VehicleBackgroundIndustry has developed a set of Tethered UAS capable of being operated on the move except that they rely on open terrain for safe operation.  Current Tethered UAS systems require that the ground vehicle stop in order to recover the UAS and rely on drivers or operators to detect the hazardous conditions during the mission. Industry has developed significant capability with respect to ground vehicle collision avoidance but has only had limited success with airborne collision avoidance with small UAS. In order for these Te-UAS payload systems to be effective and useful in combat operations, additional intelligence and sensors are needed to aid in the detection and avoidance of hazards while traveling in a combat relevant environment. By combining the technology development from the automotive sector with the commercial UAV market, it should be feasible to enable the desired capabilities for Army applications.How this is innovative: Industry and Academia have previously achieved UGV or UAS obstacle avoidance but not for a system that is both a UGV and UAS connected via a loose tether. Developing this capability will enable sharing of world models between robotic assets in the battlefield to provide greater freedom of maneuver to Army robotic or mobile formations while also reducing the dependence on teleoperation or stationary operation with a Tethered UAS asset.What need does this fulfill: Mobility and increased situational awareness are needed to maintain or enhance survivability in future operations. Tethered UAS mounted to vehicles provide increased situational awareness by acting as a variable height sensor mast but current integrations lack the coordinated intelligence to avoid hazards while moving and airborne. The Te-UAS also improves UGV route planning by providing the system an airborne viewpoint for determining route acceptability.What is this product: An approach to collaborative autonomy for UGV and UAS paired obstacle avoidance sensor and software architecture in Phase 1, with modeling and simulation conducted in Phase 2, creating guidance for the development of a MOSA architecture for Program of Record implementation.Referenceshttps://www.unmannedsystemstechnology.com/category/supplier-directory/platforms/tethered-drones-uavs/https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastienroblin/2020/11/17/drone-on-a-leash--orion-2-tethered-mini-drones-can-fly-24-hour-shifts/?sh=6a7052e258fahttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-tethered-drone/tethered-drone-could-fly-forever-idUSKCN10L1U1https://www.militaryaerospace.com/communications/article/16709761/what-is-global-persistent-surveillancehttps://fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/R46389.pdfTechnical POC & Second TPOC: Mr. Seth MiddletonMr. Neil CooperMr. Spencer WatzaMr. Nicholas JerlesMAJ Russ McNearhttps://calendly.com/aal-tech-russ/tuas-tpoc