RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN AERONAUTICS - 2015 NRA APPENDIX B.4 SAFE AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS OPERATIONS PROJECT
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate has issued NASA Research Announcement (NRA) NNH15ZEA001N Appendix B.4 Safe Autonomous Systems Operations (SASO) Project. The release included the following 9 subtopics in Appendix B.4 for foundational research in support of the SASO Project: (2.1) System Study to Identify Opportunities for increasingly Autonomous Operations with Emphasis in Traffic Flow Management and Closely-spaced Parallel Runway Operations; (2.2) System study to identify ab initio architecture(s) to meet the needs of future airspace operations (targeted for 2035 and beyond); (2.3) Safety Assurance for Increasingly Autonomous (IA) Systems; (2.4) Advanced universal, reliable, always available, cyber secure and affordable Communication, Navigation, Surveillance (CNS) Options for all altitudes of UAS operations; (2.5) Human-autonomy teaming; (2.6) Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) Trajec tory Mod eling Approaches; (2.7) Identification of UAV Situational Awareness Issues and Intervention Procedures for Off Nominal Events; (2.8) Interactivity and Mobility Decision Modeling; and (2.9) Concept and Technologies to Support Reduced Crew Operations for Commercial Carriers. NOIs are due June 29, 2015 and proposals are due August 3, 2015. The Safe Autonomous System Operations (SASO) Project seeks to maintain a highly efficient, predictable, agile, scalable, safe, and affordable airspace operations system while supporting global competitiveness and domestic viability by innovation in technology and business models to manage airspace operations. The project develops concepts, algorithms, technologies, and architectures to safely meet future National Airspace System (NAS) needs in the ATM+3 time horizon to enable airspace operations of greater complexity, density, scalability, mobility, efficiency, and affordability by justifiable combination of automation and autonomy. These NAS needs include: * Increasing mobility of passengers, goods, and services; * Allowing diverse vehicle mix and airspace uses (e.g., air travel, wind turbines, commercial space launches); * Safely enabling scalability to accommodate future demand; and * Accommodating a variety of business models (e.g., hub-and-spoke, point-to-point, air taxi, sharing). To meet these needs, the SASO project will conduct research in areas where there are potential additional benefits through the use of automation, autonomy (self-governance), and autonomicity (self-management). These areas include: * Enabling low altitude operations; * Autonomous localization, sensing, and conformance; * Reduced crew operations; * Autonomous aircraft operations; * Autonomous traffic flow management; and * Foundational verification and validation methods to assure these autonomous operations and technologies. Organizations interested in working with NASA to help enable future revolutions in aeronautics and aerospace may consider submitting a proposal under the NASA Research Announcement NNH15ZEA001N-SASO1. The complete solicitation (to include due dates) can be accessed via the following steps: 1. Open the NSPIRES homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ 2. Select "Solicitations" 3. Select "Open Solicitations" 4. Select "NASA ARMD Research Opportunities in Aeronautics (ROA 2015)- NNH15ZEA001N" 5. Select "List of Open Program Elements" and select the appropriate link. The specific information relevant to the SASO Project is available using the link titled "B.4 Safe Autonomous Systems Operations Project" and the more general aspects of the overall solicitation is available using the link titled "NASA ARMD Research Opportunities in Aeronautics (ROA 2015)." Documents related to this procurement are available over the Internet. These documents will reside on a World Wide Web (WWW) server, which may be accessed using a WWW browser application. The Internet site, or URL for the NASA Business Opportunities home page is https://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgibin/eps/bizops.cgi?gr=D&pin=04 . Offerors are responsible for monitoring this site for the release of any amendments to this solicitation. Potential offerors are responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments (if any). _________________________________________________________ NOTE: Due the competitive nature of the solicitation we are not able to engage in direct discussion regarding specific proposals or related information. Any questions should be submitted following the guidance provided in the solicitation documents.
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