Vision Based Inventory Management (VBIM)

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM SBIR 21.4 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Small Business Opportunity (SBO) Announcement May 19, 2021: SBO issued for pre-release June 16, 2021: Army begins accepting proposals July 8, 2021: Deadline for receipt of proposals no later than 12:00 p.m. ET IMPORTANT Deadline for Receipt: Proposals must be completely submitted no later than 12:00 p.m. ET, July 8, 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 1 contact@example.gov. The Help Desk is available Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. Topic Q&A: From May 19, 2021 to June 15, 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/g-julock-itat/30min 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 June 16, 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 June 2, 2021 and closes to new questions on June 23, 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. Eligibility The 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 Information Please 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 II proposals for the cost of up to $1,6000,000 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 II proposals shall not exceed 15 pages 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 and a sample Slide Deck template are attached to this SBO. Discretionary Technical and Business Assistance (TABA) will not be offered under this SBO c. Evaluation of Proposals Section 5, Evaluation of Proposals, in BAA 21.4 provides detailed information on proposal evaluation and the selection process for this SBO. d. Due Date/Time Full 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 July 8, 2021 at 12:00pm ET. A214-037 Vision Based Inventory Management (VBIM) OBJECTIVE: Streamline and accelerate the process of field artillery ammunition transfer through automation using computer vision and AI algorithms deployed on mobile devices. DESCRIPTION: Field artillery resupply is a multi-step process. Currently, munitions (projectiles, primers, propellant, and fuses) are inventoried, crated, palletized, and transported to the logistics release point, where they are unloaded, uncrated, inventoried, and transferred into a M992A3 Carrier Ammunition Tracked (CAT). The CAT then travels to a point behind the field artillery weapons system, situated far enough behind the gun line for safety, but near enough to maintain line of sight. Munitions are shuttled by hand from the CAT to the weapons system and loaded into the gun by hand. To stay on the cutting edge of resupply technology, the Army is interested in novel, hand-held solutions utilizing computer vision and artificial intelligence to automate and streamline the inventory process. PHASE I: This is a direct to phase II SBIR topic. Proposals should document that the performer has developed and demonstrated feasibility of a component, sub-system, or system concept that addresses any or all of the subjects listed above to a technology readiness level of 4. PHASE II: Develop and demonstrate a hand-held prototype system that identifies artillery munitions and extracts information from the its marking such as nomenclature, manufacturing lot, and square weight. The hand-held prototype should demonstrate the capability to export extracted data to future inventory systems, other hand-held devices equipped with the same machine vision software, and to digital DA Forms 581 and 5515 PHASE III: Develop a deployment-ready product design that supports the integration of the technology with ATAK compatible devices. The Phase III capability will leverage an open systems architecture (as required) enabling rapid integration with emerging and legacy systems, and successfully demonstrate technology integration as part of an end-to-end munitions inventory system. Low-rate initial deployment will occur (as required). KEYWORDS: Machine Vision, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Unmanned Logistics, Field Artillery, Munitions, Prototype Development . REFERENCES 1: Paladin M109A6 155mm Artillery System: https://www.army-technology.com/projects/paladin/ 2: Extended Range Cannon to get Autoloader within 5 years: https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/global-force-symposium/2019/03/27/extended-range-cannon-to-get-autoloader-within-five-years/ 3. Army developing safer, extended range rocket-assisted artillery round: https://www.army.mil/article/174013/army_developing_safer_extended_range_rocket_assisted_artillery_round 4: M1299: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1299 Author Information Technical POC Name: MAJ Chris Isch Second Technical POC: Russ McNear https://calendly.com/aal-tech-russ/vbim-tpoc