Image Optimization for Small Focal Plane Arrays

Post Date

January 4th 2012

Application Due Date

May 1st 2012

See the BAA for white paper due dates

Funding Opportunity Number

ONRBAA12-005

CFDA Number(s)

12.300

Funding Instrument Type(s)

Grant
Other

Funding Activity Categories

Science and Technology and other Research and Development

Number of Awards

3

Eligibility Categories

Other

All responsible sources from academia and industry may submit proposals under this BAA. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Institutions (MIs) are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals. However, no portion of this BAA will be set aside for HBCU and MI participation. Federally Funded Research & Development Centers (FFRDCs), including Department of Energy National Laboratories, are not eligible to receive awards under this BAA. However, teaming arrangements between FFRDCs and eligible principal bidders are allowed so long as they are permitted under the sponsoring agreement between the Government and the specific FFRDC. Navy laboratories and warfare centers as well as other Department of Defense and civilian agency laboratories are also not eligible to receive awards under this BAA and should not directly submit either white papers or full proposals in response to this BAA. If any such organization is interested in one or more of the programs described herein, the organization should contact an appropriate ONR POC to discuss its area of interest. The various scientific divisions of ONR are identified at http://www.onr.navy.mil/. As with FFRDCs, these types of federal organizations may team with other responsible sources from academia and industry that are submitting proposals under this BAA. University Affiliated Research Centers are eligible to submit proposals under this BAA unless precluded from doing so by their Department of Defense UARC contracts. Teams are also encouraged and may submit proposals in any and all areas. However, Offerors must be willing to cooperate and exchange software, data and other information in an integrated program with other contractors, as well as with system integrators, selected by ONR. Some topics cover export controlled technologies. Research in these areas is limited to "U.S. persons" as defined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) - 22 CFR _ 1201.1 et seq.

Funding

• Estimated Total Funding:

  $1700000

• Award Range:

  $None - $None

Grant Description

While the Office of Naval Research (ONR) continues to develop larger format Focal Plane Arrays (FPAs) to provide wide area coverage (e.g., ever increasing swath width) for Electro-Optics Infrared (EO-IR) sensors, it has been recognized that this approach will lead to ever increasing FPA costs. A more cost effective approach (especially for smaller unmanned aerial system (UAS) platforms), could be defined by an investigation of how to achieve sensor performance using smaller, more affordable FPAs by optimizing the imagery from these systems to meet detection, tracking and identification requirements. This BAA seeks to develop techniques to optimize imagery from passive and active EO-IR imaging sensors based on smaller, less expensive FPAs. Some past and on-going ONR efforts include coded sensor processing, compressive sensing, and "Lucky Imaging" algorithms. There may also be techniques for adding processing to read out integrated circuits (ROICs) that will enable better utilization of smaller FPAs. Although this effort is not intended to cover the development of new EO-IR sensor hardware, including FPAs and ROICs, the impact of this investigation may lead to the proposal and implementation of new sensor hardware architectures. The overall intent of the BAA is the development of image enhancement techniques and methodologies that can be incorporated in processing of imagery from a variety of different small-format EO-IR sensor architectures. This approach can greatly improve the Navy's ability to achieve Information Dominance with a broader spectrum of lower-cost sensors.

Contact Information

• Agency

  Department of Defense

• Office:

  Office of Naval Research

• Agency Contact:

  Rebecca Foster
  Contract Specialist
  Phone 703-696-2972

• Agency Mailing Address:

  grants.gov questions

• Agency Email Address:

  rebecca.d.foster@navy.mil

• More Information:

  Link to all ONR BAA's