Coastal Systems Station, Dahlgren Division, 6703 W. Highway 98, Panama City, FL 32407-7001

A -- COMPUTER-AIDED DETECTION (CAD) COMPUTER-AIDED CLASSIFICATION (CAC) FUSION RESEARCH SOL N61331-00-Q-1651 DUE 120899 POC Contracting Specialist -- Mary Kitchen (850) 235-5389; Contracting Officer -- Carol Dreger (850) 234-4863 WEB: www.ncsc.navy.mil/contracts/synopsis/syntable.htm, www.ncsc.navy.mil. E-MAIL: Kitchen_Mary@ncsc.navy.mil, Kitchen_Mary@ncsc.navy.mil. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Coastal Systems Station, Panama City, Florida, intends to award a sole-source purchase order to Charles Stark Draper Laboratories of Boston, MA for a continuation of basic research for the development of unique mathematical and statistical algorithms for enhancing sonar data, detecting, and classifying mines in sonar imagery. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has requested that the Coastal Systems Station (CSS) adapt the Draper CAD/CAC algorithms to a variety of Mine Reconnaissance and Minehunting systems and demonstrate the capability over the next 6 years. A demonstration of these algorithms with the AN/AQS-14 helicopter-towed minehunting system is scheduled for FY 00-01. This acquisition is unsuitable for full and open competition for the following reasons. Draper is uniquely qualified for this effort because they have developed unique image compression techniques and algorithms designed to greatly reduce data handling requirements and still permit reliable mine classification in highly cluttered sonar imagery. The unique CAD/CAC/Fusion algorithms developed by Draper Lab are comprised of: (1) a contrast filter for enhancing highlight/shadow pairs (2) a statistical Anomaly clutter filter for detection (3) a Markov Random Field transform for clutter rejection (4) an extractor of a wide variety of classification features based on advanced statistical metrics (5) an optimal feature selection process based on the Kullback Information Index The Draper algorithms have performed in an exemplary manner to date on limited government furnished sonar data. Only Draper has the unique knowledge base, the facilities, and the experienced personnel necessary to successfully conduct the work. The key personnel have invested over four years in gaining the unique knowledge, insight, and skills necessary. Additionally, the algorithms developed by Draper represent many work-years under other Draper/DOD contracts. The algorithms are very sophisticated and require specialized knowledge to use properly thus another vendor cannot be easily or cost-effectively duplicate them. Note 22 apply. Posted 11/24/99 (W-SN403388). (0328)

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