TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors; Information Systems; Air Platform The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with section 3.5 of the Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws. OBJECTIVE: Extend the mathematical tool set developed under the AF-funded Mode Sensing Hypothesis grant to accommodate focal plane array structures that will enable agile autonomous flying systems. Develop the FPA structures, building and testing prototypes. Incorporate structures on a flying airframe/spaceframe, demonstrating they can autonomously recognize need for flight mode change and execute the identified change. DESCRIPTION: Next generation unmanned air-vehicle systems (UAS) require improved sensing approaches to enhance their autonomous capabilities for an array of operational applications. Current autonomous UAS operations employ several sensors and associated feedback loops that are responsive to changes in their observed state relative to the environment. This topic will explore and advance a faster / more responsive, more efficient, and adaptable approach in which bioprincipic methods will be employed to modify sensor structure, control effectors, and change dynamic modes, ultimately enhancing efficiency of autonomous flight operations. In the USAF-funded Mode Sensing Hypothesis grant, it was shown that for the fly Calliphora vicina, the directions associated with the matched filters associated with the optic flow patterns associated with the fly's flight, the control authority directions, and the directions associated with details of the airframe were aligned so as to maximize the sensed energy through the system. Contrary to other hypothesized relationships, such as maximizing control to correlate with maximum observability, which is how we engineer guided systems but is not the way Nature designs these systems. Thus the most efficient flight of the fly is among modes that maintain this relationship. It is desired to develop flying platforms that demonstrate that this is true across a variety of engineered flying vehicle designs. This topic solicits proposals to develop capabilities in the seeker (the analog to the compound eye) that will facilitate the system's recognizing, from the imaging sensor output, that a different vehicle configuration (sensors, control effectors, etc) would improve performance of the system. This is done in Calliphora optic lobe with the lobula plate tangential cells (LPTCs), which are matched filters for optic flow patterns across the animal's retina. The retina can apparently be read out in several ways which reflect different preprocessing architectures among the ommatidial outputs. It is desired to develop hardware and software to have engineered systems capable of doing this, enabling agile (going from state to state) autonomous control of the system through the details of how the imaging sensor sees the world. A secondary consideration is to not over-engineer the system: keep the approach simple and inexpensive. PHASE I: For this Direct-to-Phase-II (D2P2) topic, there are no Phase I awards. To qualify for this D2P2, applicants must demonstrate feasibility, competency, and cite successful past performance in designing, building, testing, and demonstrating advanced focal plane arrays, with properties reflecting particular requirements, such as pixel inhomogeneity, pixel anisotropy, event-based sensing, identifying and tracking regions of interest, sensing expanded-beyond-the-traditional properties of the electromagnetic field such as multispectral sensing and sensing polarized light. PHASE II: AFRL seeks a new and novel bioprincipic approach to autonomous UAS operations and relative position maintenance, employing new sensors and new, versatile versions of older sensors (in this topic specifically, sensor focal plane arrays) to enable making rapid autonomous decisions to improve the GN&C performance of the UAS across a variety of flight operations. For this Direct-to-Phase-II (D2P2) topic, the proposer should develop, implement, and prototype a novel advanced FPA with different implicit architectures, such as pixel inhomogeneity, pixel anisotropy, event-based sensing, identifying and tracking regions of interest, sensing expanded-beyond-the-traditional properties of the electromagnetic field such as multispectral sensing and sensing polarized light. The proposer should demonstrate functionality of the prototype in flight demonstrations on a suitable vehicle, using the general approach associated with the mode sensing hypothesis. The developed novel FPA structures will allow the sensor to prefilter the information, enabling autonomous decisions to be made to improve the performance of the space vehicle based on observations from the sensor suite. Improvements could include approaches to focal plane readout, changing the spectral or spatial or polarization properties sensed, or changing the control effectors (such as angle of thrust), etc, to improve the performance of the vehicle. PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: AFRL is building a program to incrementally demonstrate the principles engendered in the mode sensing hypothesis by developing various sensors to be incorporated in to the overall structure of a UAS or other airframe, demonstrating the validity of the approach. Successful completion of this effort will provide a critical component towards realizing a complete mode sensing capability, to be incorporated into the system as part of the final flight test demonstration. As this will result in a 6.2 level subsystem, In Phase 3 the government and vendor team will work with AFRL/RWT flight team to further mature the technology as a portion of a flight experiment. At that point, the system prototype will be demonstrated to appropriate AFLCMC program offices for consideration for the various tasks this mode sensing technology can address. REFERENCES: 1. Krapp, H. G., G. K. Taylor and J. S. Humbert (2012). The mode-sensing hypothesis: matching sensors, actuators and flight dynamics. Frontiers in Sensing - From Biology to Engineering. F. G. Barth, J. A. C. Humphrey and M. V. Srinivasan, Springer: 101-114. 2. Theobald, J. C. (2017). "Optic flow induces spatial filtering in fruit flies." Current Biology 27 (March 20, 2017): R1 R2. 3. Barrows, G. L., T. M. Young, C. W. Neely, A. N. Leonard and J. S. Humbert (2012). Vision Based Hover in Place. 50th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting. 4. Humbert, Krapp, ..., Taylor, Motion vision is tuned to maximize sensorimotor energy transfer in blowfly flight submitted to Nature 5. Warrant, E. and G. Von der Emde, Eds. (2016). the Ecology of Animal Senses: Matched Filters for Economical Sensing, Springer. KEYWORDS: Mode sensing; motion vision; insect flight; matched filter; sensor placement; mechanistic interpretability; observability; controllability
