The Department of Commerce, specifically the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is conducting market research through a Sources Sought Notice for a Mobile Manipulator System. The objective is to identify potential sources capable of providing an advanced, integrated mobile manipulator that meets specific technical specifications for both indoor and outdoor applications, which will support NIST's development of performance metrics and standardized test methods for robotic systems. This procurement is crucial for enhancing NIST's capabilities in evaluating mobile manipulators, ensuring global competitiveness in robotics standards. Interested vendors should respond to Hunter Tjugum at hunter.tjugum@nist.gov by email, providing detailed information about their products and capabilities, with responses due within 7 business days of the notice issuance.

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE

NAICS: 334516 – Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
PSC: 6640 – Laboratory Equipment and Supplies

Notice ID Number: AMDTCSSN2501464-2

Title: Mobile Manipulator System

Department of Commerce Advanced Acquisition Planning Entry Number: NA

PURPOSE
The purpose of this sources sought notice is to conduct market research and identify potential sources of commercial products/services that satisfy the Government’s anticipated needs.
 
BACKGROUND
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) works on the development of quantitative standard test and evaluation methods for mobile manipulators in manufacturing environments. Prior to standards development, NIST develops the test protocol, executes the test methods, and provides results to the standards development community comprised of industry, academia, and government.

The NIST Mobility Performance of Robotic Systems project, within the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at NIST, developed one of the first mobile manipulator prototypes, which served as the foundation for subsequent prototype development. Since then, the industry has begun to market and sell integrated mobile manipulator systems. Acquiring a new integrated robot is crucial for conducting experiments and developing a technologically relevant metrology framework to establish the "reproducibility" of NIST-developed apparatuses, test procedures, and the validation of standard test methods. Additionally, to remain globally competitive, it is essential to develop standardized test methods that ensure proper benchmarking of robot capabilities.

An advanced, versatile, reconfigurable open-source mobile manipulator capable of navigating in both indoor and outdoor environments will ground NIST’s quantitative test and standards development. NIST will be researching novel metrics, test apparatuses, integration of sensors, and test procedures to evaluate the autonomous onboard sensing, simultaneous localization and mapping, multi-robot collaboration capabilities. In addition, this requirement will provide for enhanced communications with stakeholders, including the general public during tours, using hands-on demonstrations of state-of-the-science remote robot capabilities within relevant test apparatuses in our Mobile Manipulator Testbed.

The purpose of this potential requirement is to obtain a state-of-the-art integrated mobile manipulator for indoor and outdoor applications to be used for the development of performance metrics for new mobile manipulator applications.

NIST is seeking information from sources that may be capable of providing a solution that will achieve the objectives identified in this notice.

ANTICIPATED REQUIREMENTS

The Contractor shall provide a Mobile Manipulator System meeting the following minimum specifications:
Line Item 0001: Mobile Manipulator System
Quantity: One (1)

Required Technical Specifications: Fully integrated manipulator, where the manipulator:
Is physically integrated with the mobile base by the manufacturer.
Has a single power management system. I.E., the manipulator and the mobile base have a shared battery(s).
Provides a control system where user(s) can move the manipulator and the mobile base in the same application.
Can manipulate payloads 12 kg or greater.
Has 6 degrees of freedom.
Weight (total) less than 45 kg.
1.2 m reach or more.
The manipulator should be compatible with a known end of arm tool (EOAT), such as Robotiq or OnRobot. The following features are required:
M8 connector type
Customizable, two-finger gripper with 4 kg payload form fit
Finger positioning resolution: 0.1 mm
Force (0.1 N resolution) and proximity (0 up to 100 mm) sensing
Maximum repetition uncertainty: 0.2 mm
The mobile manipulator provides hardware and software interfaces to add onboard Inertial Measurement Unit  IMU and cameras.
The mobile manipulator shall have hardware and software interface to integrate user-added onboard sensors.
The contractor shall provide updates to the software on the robot and controller and provide electronic manuals as applicable.
The mobile base should be able to navigate different terrains (i.e. soil, industrial floors), not just flat floors, containing the following specifications:
At least 15° inclined/declined slope
10 cm threshold
10 cm gap
2 cm-depth 15cm x 15cm crack
Payload support: at least 150 kg
At least 5 hours of autonomous operation
Omnidirectional kinematics
Ready-to-use control application, capable of following functions without writing raw codes (C, python, etc.), capable of:
Generating a map
Navigating from point A to B in a map, and docking
Moving the manipulator arm to the 6-dof point
Activating the manipulator EOATs task
3D localization and navigation package 
Linux-based controller operating system for research and development. Integrated API (Representational State Transfer (REST), Robot Operating System (ROS), etc.) to monitor/control the manipulator and the base via user-developed external controller.
Controller can be synchronized using Network Time Protocol (NTP) or Precision Time Protocol (PTP)
ROS based robot management system
Localization: Ability to integrate novel robot localization and navigation algorithms, capable of simultaneous Localization and Mapping
Environmentally ruggedized for indoor and outdoor operations
GPS (for outdoor tests)
Weather-proof for outdoor field testing , must be IP67 compliant.
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity
Ethernet, USB, and HDMI ports
Safety scanning and response for navigation and 360 obstacle avoidance

HOW TO RESPOND TO THIS NOTICE

In responding to this notice, please DO NOT PROVIDE PROPRIETARY INFORMATION. Please include only the information described below, readable in either Microsoft Word 365, Microsoft Excel 365, or Adobe .pdf format.

Submit the response by email to the Primary Point of Contact and, if specified, to the Secondary Point of Contact listed in this notice as soon as possible, and preferably before the closing date and time of this notice, or by 7 business days after issuance of this notice.  Please note that to be considered for award under any official solicitation, the entity must be registered and “active” in SAM at the time of solicitation response. “ID Assigned” is not acceptable.

•    Provide the complete name of your company, address, name of contact for follow-up questions, their email, their phone number and, if your company has an active registration in https://sam.gov, your company’s Unique Entity ID (UEI).

•    Identify the equipment that your company sells that can meet the objectives addressed in the BACKGROUND section of this notice.  For each product recommended to meet the Government’s requirement, provide the following:
o    Manufacturer name
o    Model number
o    Technical specifications
o    If your company is not the manufacturer, provide information on your company’s status as an authorized reseller of the product(s)

•    Describe performance capabilities of the product(s) your company recommends to meet the Government’s requirements.  Additionally, if there are other features or functions that you believe would assist NIST in meeting its objectives described above, please discuss in your response.
o    Discuss whether the equipment that your company sells and which you describe in your response to this notice may be customized to specifications and indicate any limits to customization.

•    Identify any aspects of the NIST market research notice, including instructions, and draft minimum specifications in the BACKGROUND section you cannot meet and state why.  Please offer suggestions for how the market research notice and draft minimum specifications could be made more competitive.

•    State whether the proposed equipment is manufactured in the United States and, if not, state the name of the country where the equipment is manufactured.

•    Identify any plans/possibilities for changes in manufacturing location of the aforementioned equipment and provide relevant details, including timeline.

•    For the NAICS code listed in this notice:

o    Indicate whether your company is (a) a small business or (b) other than small business.  See the Table of Small Business Size Standards (located at www.sba.gov) and the associated .pdf download file for small business size standards and additional information.

o    If you believe the NAICS code listed in this notice is not the best NAICS code for the type of product addressed in this notice, identify an alternative NAICS code that you believe would be more appropriate for the planned procurement.  

•    Describe standard terms and conditions of sale offered by your company for the recommended equipment such as: delivery time after your company accepts the order; FOB shipping terms; manufacturer warranty (including details regarding nature and duration); if available, description(s) of available extended warranty; equipment setup and test; operator and service instruction manual(s); cleanup after installation; and if applicable, other offered services.  Provide a copy of manufacturer standard terms and conditions that typically relate to the sale of the specified equipment, if available.

•    If the recommended equipment and related services are available for purchase on any existing Federal Supply Schedule contract(s) or other contracts against which NIST may be able to place orders, identify the contract number(s) and other relevant information.

•    Provide any other information that you believe would be valuable for NIST to know as part of its market research for this requirement.

•    State if you require NIST to provide additional information to improve your understanding of the government’s requirement and/or would like to meet with NIST representatives to discuss the requirement and the capabilities of the identified equipment.

QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS NOTICE

Questions regarding this notice may be submitted via email to the Primary Point of Contact and the Secondary Point of Contact listed in this notice. Questions should be submitted so that they are received by three days after SSN issuance. If the Contracting Officer determines that providing a written amendment to this notice to document question(s) received would benefit other potential respondents, the questions would be anonymized, and a written response to such question(s) would be provided via an amendment to this notice.

IMPORTANT NOTES

This notice is for market research purposes and should not be construed as a commitment by NIST to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract.  There is no solicitation available at this time.

This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response.

NIST reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate.

Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s capability.

Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.

After a review of the responses received, a synopsis and solicitation may be published on GSA’s eBuy or SAM.gov. However, responses to this notice will not be considered an adequate response to any such solicitation(s).

The responses shall not exceed five (5) pages including all attachments, charts, etc.

Thank you for taking the time to submit a response to this request!

Buyer

NAICS

PSC

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