SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION IN VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION OF FLIGHT-CRITICALSYSTEMS
- Notice Date
- 3/31/2009
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code210.H, Greenbelt, MD 20771
- ZIP Code
- 20771
- Solicitation Number
- NNH09ZEA001L
- Response Due
- 4/24/2009
- Archive Date
- 3/31/2010
- Point of Contact
- Dawn McIntosh, Associate Technical Integration Manager, Phone 000-000-0000, Fax 000-000-0000, />
- E-Mail Address
-
hq-vnv-rfi@mail.nasa.gov<br
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- 1. BackgroundThe NASA Aviation Safety Program is hereby soliciting information on Verification andValidation (V&V) challenges for the next generation of flight-critical systems. Whilethe current aviation system has an enviable safety record, advances in technology areplacing an increasing strain on our ability to assure the integrity of new andanticipated systems. Additionally, there is a perception that current approaches for theassurance of complex flight-critical systems impose a barrier to innovation. Thus, weare soliciting input on innovative approaches, technologies and processes to addressthese concerns. The specific focus is on flight-critical systems, i.e., systemscomprising hardware, software and physical systems, used to execute pre-defined conceptsof operation or operating procedures, and interacting with human operators includingpilots and controllers, that will directly control some aspect of flight and thus must bedemonstrated to the highest levels of safety. This focus is to support the NextGeneration Air Transportation System (NextGen see http://www.jpdo.gov/nextgen.asp ), targeting NextGen safety activities and interests encompassing vehicles, vehiclesystems, airspace, airspace concept of operations, and air traffic technologies such ascommunication or guidance and navigation.The NASA Aviation Safety Program is responsible for mid- to long-term research to improvecivilian aviation safety. This request for information is targeting research advancesrequired to create the theory, methods and tools to support future methods of V & V. Innovative and transformative methods are particularly of interest; while they shouldsupport all stages of system life-cycle (including design, test and evaluation,production and subsequent maintenance and modification decisions), they do not need to beconstrained by current certification methods.2. DescriptionUnder this RFI, the NASA Aviation Safety Program solicits insight into V & V obstacles totimely and cost-effective implementation of flight-critical systems. At this time, theNASA Aviation Safety Program will use any information provided for the purpose ofconsidering a focused research effort in this area and will publish a review of the stateof the art which could include a summary of the collected responses from thissolicitation. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes and is not to beconstrued as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for informationsolicited. Additionally, the NASA Aviation Safety Program solicits insight into innovative theories,methods and tools for V & V of Flight-Critical Systems at all levels of development. Wewelcome articulation of all obstacles to their implementation, including furthertechnical developments required, changes they imply in current processes for design, testand evaluation, regulatory compliance and other implementation considerations, and otherimplications such as policy concerns.For this RFI, the NASA Aviation Safety Program created the following three broadcategories for purposes of organizing possible research and objectives. Suggestions foralternate organizations of the research areas, and descriptions of V & V issues not notedin the three topics below, are also welcomed.Topic 1.Modeling and Validation of New Concepts for Vehicles and Operations:Current safety assessments of new concepts for vehicles and operations need to beextended to better address transformative changes that are not covered by extendingcurrent V & V methods.In addition, there is a need to predict key blocks to humanperformance and to provide rigorous design guidance early-and-throughout development ofthese concepts. The objective is to develop safety-case methods and supportingtechnologies, such as methods for modeling concepts of operation to identify safetyissues, capable of analyzing the system-wide safety properties suitable for civilaviation vehicles and for complex concepts of operation involving airborne systems,ground systems, human operators and controllers.Topic 2.Verification of Complex Integrated and Distributed Systems: Theintegration of functions across traditional boundaries (e.g., integration of discrete andcontinuous behaviors, integration of distributed vehicle (and ground-vehicle) functions,novel distributions of functions between air and ground and between human and automation)demands new methods for predicting, assuring and proving the safety levels demanded ofNextGen. The objective is to develop a collection of technologies and mathematicalmodels that enable rigorous, comprehensive analysis of new integrated (and distributed)systems interacting through various structures such communication networks andhuman-automation and human-human interaction. Topic 3.Software Safety Assurance: Establishing sufficient confidence in thesafety of complex software-intensive systems, such as those envisioned for NextGen, is asignificant challenge.While this problem has been widely recognized, it is generallyviewed as incremental changes to a current process that is cost-prohibitive andautomatically precludes a wide range of functions and capabilities; thus, atransformative view of software safety assurance is needed. The objective is to developtechniques, tools, and policies to enable efficient and accurate analysis of safetyaspects of software-intensive systems; ultimately reducing the cost of software V & V tothe point where it no longer obstructs many safety innovations and NextGen developments,and ultimately enable in-the-field assurance of composed software-intensive systems. 3. Process The NASA Aviation Safety Program, based at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC, overseesprogram research conducted largely at four NASA field centers (Ames Research Center,Dryden Flight Research Center, Glenn Research Center, and Langley Research Center), andat a variety of partners facilities. In Fiscal Year 2009 a four-step process will beused to define a research effort in V & V of Flight Critical Systems within the AviationSafety Program: Step 1: Assess the long-term research needs and goals in the aviation community for V & Vof flight-critical systems and establish technical roadmaps to accomplish those goals. Indeveloping those roadmaps, prioritize according to NASAs unique strengths andcapabilities. Establish a multi-center, multidisciplinary planning team. Step 2: Solicit information through this RFI on the key areas of interest from theexternal community. Step 3: Develop a research plan and establish NASA research teams. The responses to thisRFI will provide important source material to the NASA research teams. Step 4: Identify key partnerships with other federal agencies, international agenciescoordinating aviation safety, industry, not-for-profit research groups and academia. Anumber of partnerships may be considered, including research conducted by NASA on areimbursable basis, non-reimbursable inter-agency or space act agreements, and directsponsorship of research through competitively-selected on-site and off-site contractingmechanisms and cooperative agreements.Note that NASA, at the time of issuing this RFI,has not committed to any of these mechanisms.4. Information for Respondents 4.1 How to Respond Respondents are requested to submit a white paper of ten (10) pages maximum, with minimum12-point Times font. All white papers shall include the company or institute name,point-of-contact, address, phone number and email. These responses may includereferences to material available in the public literature; NASAs consideration of thesereferences will be aided by the respondent discussing the importance of and uniquecapabilities described by any cited material.Please submit all responses in electronic format to the Point-of-Contact listed below byNOON Eastern Standard Time, April 24, 2009: Name: Dawn McIntosh Title: Associate Technical Integration Manager, Aviation Safety Program Email: hq-vnv-rfi@mail.nasa.govQuestions regarding this RFI should also be emailed to the above Point-of-Contact. 4.2 Proprietary or Confidential InformationSince provided information will be incorporated into a larger state of the art reviewthat will be published by NASA, respondents are NOT to provide any information that isconsidered proprietary, trade secrets, privileged, or confidential. Any response thatincludes data or information with markings indicating that the data or information isnon-public, proprietary or may not be republished will be considered non-responsive andwill be returned.
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