Category: Opportunity
DoD Communities Of Interest: Autonomy
Subject: Autonomous Amphibious Response Vehicle (A2RV)
Due Date: 2022-01-17 23:59:59
Government Organization: Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)
Description:
Project Description
Autonomous Amphibious Response Vehicle (A2RV)
The Department of Defense (DoD) seeks a state-of-the-art amphibious unmanned system capable of detecting, identifying, localizing, navigating to, inspecting, and neutralizing explosive hazards from very shallow water (40 feet or less) through the surf zone to the beach exit. DIU is seeking both, complete solutions and/or relevant partial solutions or subsystems, as detailed below. DIU will consider underwater, surface, and airborne solutions, as well as various forms of locomotion.
Program Overview:
The Autonomous Amphibious Response Vehicle (A2RV) will provide commanders with various unmanned capabilities to include clearance of explosive hazards from ship-to-shore, shore-to-ship, ship-to-ship, and shore-to-shore employment conditions. Employment conditions may include: night, hostile, contested, or uncertain and surf/high currents (sea state 3).
The A2RV will complement other capabilities by adhering to open system architecture principles and interoperating with unmanned underwater vehicles, remote-operated vehicles, unmanned surface vehicles, and Explosive Ordnance Disposal, technicians.
Acquisition Strategy:
DIU plans to award one or more prototype Other Transaction (OT) awards to rapidly adapted mature commercial technologies for the military use case described in this Area of Interest. The desired prototyping period is 12-18 months, but no longer than 24 months. During this time, DIU, in partnership with the U.S. Marine Corps, will characterize and evaluate the utility of the prototypes. The prototypes will be evaluated against their Original Equipment Manufacturers’ specifications, government-provided performance specifications (listed below), and by operational forces to determine their military utility. Additional capabilities, both commercial and government-furnished, may be integrated during the prototyping period.
Selection & Award:
Companies may submit more than one solution brief. Companies may address the whole problem or portions of the problem in their solution brief. The government may suggest teaming solutions to combine complementary capabilities.
System Requirements:
The solution is required to operate within the littoral zone – Very Shallow Water (VSW) to the Surf Zone (SZ) (40 to 0 feet), through the beach exit. It is required to detect, identify, localize, navigate to and neutralize obstacles and/or explosive hazards from the VSW through the SZ as far inland as the beach exit. These capabilities shall be utilized autonomously and/or semi-autonomously, and may be followed by the execution of manual techniques by the individual EOD technician. The prototype is required to adhere to open architecture standards; it must be capable of integrating with a government-furnished command and control architecture, given an Interface Control Document (ICD), to communicate with other mine countermeasures systems as it conducts its mission. Further information including interface standards will be provided at later phases of the selection process.
Relevant Sub-systems
- Vehicle Chassis
- Autonomous Guidance Navigation, and Control software
- Sensors and Autonomous Perception Software
- Manipulators and Exploitation/Neutralization Payloads
- Power, Propulsion, and Steering Systems
- Communications subsystems and hardware (Radio Frequency, Acoustic Communications, etc.)
Additional Resources
How to Pitch to DIU
DIU hosted a webinar on May 6, 2021, where we shared best practices for responding to a DIU solicitation. Watch this recording to learn more!
https://www.diu.mil/solution-brief-guidance
Website: https://www.diu.mil/work-with-us/submit-solution/PROJ00337
Questions or assistance, contact:
North Carolina Defense Technology Transition Office (DEFTECH)
Dennis Lewis
lewisd@ncmbc.us
703-217-3127
Bob Burton
burtonr@ncmbc.us
910-824-9609
North Carolina Defense Technology Transition Office | PO Box 1748, Fayetteville, NC 28303