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U.S. DOT FY 2023 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A


* * * 2/3/23 Update: The Pre-solicitation is now closed. Topic questions are no longer being accepted. * * *

This U.S. DOT Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Pre-solicitation Q&A Forum provides small businesses an opportunity to submit clarifying questions on the topics published in the U.S. DOT Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Phase I Pre-Solicitation. Questions will be answered by the Technical Experts/Topic Authors at the U.S.DOT Operating Administrations during this period. Questions shall be limited to improving the understanding of a particular topic's requirements and should not share proposal ideas nor proprietary information.


The U.S. DOT’s FY 2023 Pre-Solicitation period is January 4, 2023, through February 3, 2023, at 5:00 pm Eastern Time (ET). Only questions posted within this period will be responded to.

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Search: Browse the existing questions by category to find the topic you are interested in and to see if your question has already been addressed. If you see a question you are also interested in, you can add a vote to the question, or leave a comment.

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Please note, all comments will be public information. Potential offerors shall not include in the question(s) or comment(s) any information that they do not wish to be made public. Telephone inquiries or meeting requests will not be addressed and may be removed. The U.S. DOT shall not respond to requests for advice or guidance on any offeror’s solution to any SBIR topic, and shall not consider any submitted materials other than questions.

Thanks for joining our SBIR Pre-solicitation Q&A Forum.

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52 results found

  1. submissions with one of the three solutions

    The Notice calls for three solutions 1. low power consuming edge computing chip 2. programing the chip 3. transmitting data. My question is if we have a solution for one of the issues will the proposal be considered and a partnership established to solve the other two issues?

    3 votes

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  2. This is for a *new* device, correct?

    To clarify: based on reading the various responses, it appears that the main interest here is a new, self-contained, edge-processing sensor system that is primarily video-based but will work with other sensors (e.g., loop sensors, etc.), and which can properly detect the conditions or sense the events described in those various questions (such as counting and discriminating vehicle types, detecting wet/frozen pavement, sensing accident events, etc.).

    It is NOT focused on retrofitting all existing traffic cameras or other sensors with an edge computing system. Correct?

    1 vote

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  3. 1 vote

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  4. What types of events are of interest?

    What types of results or analytics are you envisioning produced from the vehicle and micro-mobility counts, classifications processed in situ? What types of events (crash, weather, etc) are of interest? Or are currently detected?

    1 vote

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  5. 1 vote

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  6. Desired hardware specs?

    What are the desired hardware specs for the SBIR developed prototype, and for any field-implemented device?

    2 votes

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  7. Mechanisms for assessing internal conditions

    The reference material does not seem to comprehensively describe methods of assessing the internal conditions of concrete ties. Would it be sufficient to identify internal issues based on visible symptoms, such as splitting and bursting? Would a second, comprehensive step of evaluation of potential issues as identified in a broad, at-speed test be considered for this topic?

    1 vote

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  8. 2 votes

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  9. 2 votes

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  10. Questions

    1) For how many minutes or hours should the test equipment be capable of simulating a breathing human?
    2) What age or ages of humans should the test equipment simulate?
    3) How many human subjects should be tested to achieve the goals of Phase I?

    2 votes

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  11. Can you provide insight on the DRE SME expectations?

    For the statement below, can the subject matter expertise be via a contracted consultant(s) or do you envision the team working with a training organization that has DRE experience / SMEs?

    To achieve this, it is expected that subject matter expertise in the areas of drug-impaired driving enforcement will inform the training approach and material. Ideally, these subject matter experts (SMEs) should be drug recognition experts (DRE); drug recognition expert instructors; or drug recognition expert state coordinators who are familiar with the content and application of the DECP.

    1 vote

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  12. The topic mentions virtual. Is the use of augmented reality of interest?

    What is the interest in AR, if any? The team would like to know if there prioritized targets for how the training/course is deployed to users.

    2 votes

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  13. 2 votes

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  14. Topic Clarifications

    For Phase I, is there an expectation that filming for the training program take place or just the curriculum build?

    1 vote

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  15. Topic Clarifications

    1) What are the constraints around ‘low-power’ – e.g. <1W, <10W, <100W? What power source is the solution expected to use (mains voltage, solar, etc)?
    2) Are the topic authors looking to fuse sensor and video metadata through edge computing, or replace all sensors with only cameras?-
    3) Will the topic authors provide sample data sets for video and sensor data to optimize proposed solutions?
    4) Are there any specific mounting location boundary conditions on the cameras and compute hardware – e.g. top of a pole, roadside at vehicle level, etc. ?
    5) Are the topic authors open to wireless…

    1 vote

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  16. Current human interaction in traffic management?

    What types of "human interference" currently happen via the Transportation Management Centers? Are there specific signals in the current videos that humans are monitoring to take traffic control action?

    1 vote

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  17. "real-time" traffic monitoring?

    The pre-solicitation mentions "real-time traffic monitoring." What is the time bound of "real-time" in this scenario? What is the expected application or value of the data being "real-time"?

    1 vote

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  18. What vehicle classes should the device detect/differentiate?

    What vehicle classes do you want the device to detect/differentiate? Are there any other types of detection, beyond vehicle count, vehicle class, electric scooters, electric bicycles, conventional bicycles, and speed, that USDOT is interested in?

    1 vote

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  19. Weather and Pavement Conditions Monitoring - future integration or current requirement?

    Is the capability to detect fogging, wet pavement, and icy pavement conditions required for this proposal? Or just the ability to eventually integrate with other sensors or devices that do this kind of monitoring?

    1 vote

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  20. Importance of Integration with other traffic sensors?

    Is this pre-solicitation asking for (A) an “edge computing device” to be developed that integrates with other traffic sensors, or (B) the development of a single device that does the sensing and processing in situ? i.e. In case (A), the integration is part of the deliverables, not the traffic monitoring sensors themselves. In this case, what types of other traffic sensors should this device take in/integrate?

    1 vote

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