RFI: In-time System-wide Safety Assurance (ISSA)

AMENDMENT ONE: Amendment One is posted to correct the email address that responses to the RFI should be sent. Please email all submittals in response to this RFI to: arc-cal-sws-rfi@mail.nasa.gov This is a Request for Information (RFI) only and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will take procurement action in this matter. Further, neither NASA nor the Government will be responsible for any cost incurred in furnishing this information. NASA has worked with the community to develop a vision for improved aviation safety assurance focused on more comprehensive and timely detection, assessment, and mitigation of safety issues. NASA intends to conduct research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) activities to enable a progression of capabilities for an increasingly diverse set of vehicles (including emergent new-entrant types) that must seamlessly integrate into complex systems and operations without compromising safety. Research will focus on secure networking technologies, new safety-related data driven information services, data mining and data analytics, automated assessment, decision support, system/vehicle health, and model-based forecasting of the changing nature of safety risks. System-of-systems modeling, prognostic tools, and run-time system assurance technologies will be the cornerstones of these new system-wide capabilities that support prediction and identification of safety issues in-time to mitigate risk. This RFI is being used to gather market research for NASA to inform decisions regarding partnership strategies. NASA is seeking information from educational institutions, industry, and other appropriate organizations regarding opportunities to leverage and collaborate on In-time System-wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) research activities. NASA will use the results of this RFI to determine technical needs and community interests that may lead to future solicitations regarding ISSA research. Background: NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) has identified Real-Time, or In-Time, Safety Assurance as one of six key thrusts under its Strategic Implementation Plan. ( https://www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch/strategy ) By addressing known hazards and responding to issues illuminated by analysis of incidents and accidents, commercial aviation has achieved an exemplary safety record and inspired the confidence of the flying public. As aviation adopts new technologies, new vehicles, and new missions to enhance the capacity, efficiency, and uses of the NAS, maintaining a safe system will require recognition and timely mitigation of safety issues as they emerge. A shift toward more proactive risk mitigation will become critical. NASA, through the community road-mapping process, has identified the following outcomes associated with development of an ISSA capability over the next 25+ years: Outcome for 2017-2025: Introduction of Advanced Safety Assurance Tools. Over the next decade (2015-2025), safety tools such as applications of data mining and analysis, prognostics, in-time system assurance techniques, and modeling related to safety-critical risks will improve the ability to gain insights and develop ISSA solutions. Taking advantage of the increasing availability of aviation system data, identification of safety issues will focus on scaling currently available data mining technologies to process system-wide data and high-fidelity model-based information services regarding the changing nature of risk during flight. Increased speed and accuracy of analysis tools will support progress toward in-time identification of precursors to emerging safety issues. Outcome for 2025-2035: An Integrated Safety Assurance System Enabling Continuous System-wide Safety Monitoring. In the subsequent decade (2025-2035), integration of analysis into a live virtual simulation of the NAS will provide a comprehensive picture of system health and facilitate coordination of mitigation strategies. This capability will improve safety assurance through earlier detection of trends and risks system wide. More highly automated safety assessments will enable continuous safety assurance, and an automated system will evolve over the decade to enable near-in-time assessments as confidence increases in regularly validated system judgments. Outcome for beyond 2035: Automated Safety Assurance Integrated with Real-time Operations Enabling a self-protecting Aviation System. Beyond 2035, the automated safety assurance system will become integrated with in-time operations to create an aviation system that exhibits self-protection and self-healing properties. In the far term, human operators and autonomous systems will collaborate to ensure an optimal mix of corrective actions - from immediate operational adjustments to longer-term system and infra-structure changes - in order to minimize safety risks. NASA ARMD will focus on research that incorporates novel sensor and networking technologies, along with innovative data analytics and modeling, to enable unprecedented insight and predictive capability regarding operations, system/vehicle health, and safety margins. System-of-systems modeling, prognostic tools, and run-time system assurance technologies will enable ISSA capability at all levels, from individual component elements to a system of systems. NASA ARMD's contributions fall under four research themes: Enhancing and enabling continuous system-wide safety awareness: Development of information services and derived architectural requirements to support comprehensive safety monitoring through acquisition, integration and quality assurance of heterogeneous data coming from a diverse set of sources, wherein some data may require protections that de-identify the source. Enhancing and enabling in-time safety risk identification and assessment: Development of tools and techniques to improve the accuracy and integrity of timely detection, diagnosis and predictive capabilities of hazardous states. Enabling coordinated strategies for prevention, mitigation and recovery: Development of methods for multi-agent or automated planning, evaluation, and execution of timely responses to hazardous events. Demonstrating benefits and assessing capabilities: Implementation, experimentation, demonstration, cost-benefit analysis, and feasibility assessment of new ISSA capabilities. Research and Development Requirements Addressed in this RFI: NASA ARMD has developed a community-wide roadmap identifying near-, mid- and long-term research requirements for achieving the ISSA vision ( https://www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch/strategy ) At the end of the first 10 year epoch of this roadmap, domain-specific capabilities should be demonstrated. Initially, NASA has selected two application domains of interest: (1) Commercial terminal area operations (e.g. such as at major U.S. airports) (2) Emerging commercial unmanned aircraft operations, particularly those that would operate at low altitudes beyond visual line-of-sight and near or over populated areas As they relate to safety risks for either of these domains, NASA is interested in opportunities to leverage existing work and to collaborate on new efforts in all of areas identified in the roadmap. NASA has identified the following topics of highest need for partnerships and technical contributions by the community in the near-term. Data pertaining to safety of operations: Research will require access to safety relevant operational data in order to develop and validate assessment tools and secure information sharing protocols. NASA is interested in opportunities for partnerships that support access to data pertaining to safety of operations and operational relevant environments for validating and transferring analysis capabilities. Architecture and information services to support in-time data monitoring: An in-time safety risk assessment capability will require access to a broad set of safety relevant data or information services, as noted above. Development of such services and a data exchange concept that can provide for in-time integrity assurance will be critical. NASA is particularly interested in plans to address limitations for streaming currently available information services and research on architectures that could support in-time exchange and quality assurance. NASA is also interested in concepts for new services such as would help to mitigate safety risks, particularly those faced by the emerging commercial unmanned aircraft domain. Advances in Data Driven Modeling, Machine Learning, Uncertainty Management, Decision-Making, and Computational Power: NASA efforts will look to leverage advances in data driven modeling, machine learning, uncertainty management, and decision-making to support development of more sophisticated analysis tools, validation, and predictive capabilities. Advances in cognitive computing will be critical to enable automated response planning and execution. NASA is particularly interested in understanding current limitations on processing speed for analysis tools and prognostic functions that make use of both advanced models and machine learning techniques. Tools to assure ISSA tools and inputs to ISSA: In order to ensure benefit without harm, all ISSA tools and inputs must be trustworthy. NASA is interested in collaborative research that leverages progress in assurance of prognostic and analysis tools as well as assurance of information elements that are inputs to ISSA such as data feeds and mitigation strategies, including detection of malicious interventions. Responding to this RFI: NASA is seeking responses from U.S. industry, government entities, and academia. RFI responses must include: - Name of the primary point of contact for the response - Academic faculty or business title - Institution or organization affiliation - Email address - Phone - Identification of other key individuals who collaborated on the RFI response - A brief summary (300 word limit) description of previous relevant R&D experience related to ISSA capabilities and/or the two application domains of interest. Responses should be sent to: Corrected Amendment ONE: Email responses to: arc-cal-sws-rfi@mail.nasa.gov