Surveying objects across an air-water interface

**NEW - May 8, 2020

New attachment has been added. Please read the document as it provides important information pertaining to the submission of your proposal.

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May 5, 2020

• The closing date for this challenge has been extended to May 25, 2020 at 14:00 EDT.

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April 14, 2020

Due to the issues surrounding COVID19, we have decided to extend the solicitation closing date until May 8, 2020.

This Challenge Notice is issued under the Innovative Solutions Canada Program (ISC) Call for Proposals 003 (EN578-20ISC3). For general ISC information, Bidders can visit the ISC website.

Please refer to the Solicitation Documents which contain the process for submitting a proposal.

Steps to apply:

Step 1: read this challenge

Step 2: read the Call for Proposals

Step 3: propose your solution here

Challenge title: Surveying objects across an air-water interface

CHALLENGE SPONSOR: National Research Council of Canada (NRC)

Funding Mechanism: Contract

MAXIMUM CONTRACT VALUE:

Multiple contracts could result from this Challenge.

The maximum funding available for any Phase 1 Contract resulting from this Challenge is $150,000.00 CAD excluding applicable taxes, shipping, travel and living expenses, as required, for up to 6 months (excluding submission of the final report).

Estimated number of Phase 1 contracts: 2

The maximum funding available for any Phase 2 Contract resulting from this Challenge is $500,000.00 CAD excluding applicable taxes, shipping, travel and living expenses, as required, for up to 24 months (excluding submission of the final report). Only eligible businesses that have successfully completed Phase 1 will be considered for Phase 2.

Estimated number of Phase 2 contracts: 1

This disclosure is made in good faith and does not commit Canada to contract for the total approximate funding. Final decisions on the number of Phase 1 and Phase 2 awards will be made by Canada on the basis of factors such as evaluation results, departmental priorities and availability of funds.

TRAVEL:  For Phase 1 it is anticipated that two meetings will require the successful bidder(s) to travel to the location identified below:

Kick-off meeting

Ottawa, ON

Final Review Meeting

Ottawa, ON

All other communication can take place by telephone, videoconference, and WebEx.

Problem Summary Statement

NRC is seeking a non-intrusive surveying technology that can accurately measure the surface and profile objects in a laboratory setting that are partially or fully submerged under water.

Problem Statement

In hydraulic laboratories world-wide, coastal engineers and ocean scientists use physical model testing at reduced scales to test the performance of various coastal features or marine infrastructure (for example beaches, breakwaters, groynes, revetments, scour mattresses, coastal bluffs, river beds/banks and deltas) under storm and/or flood conditions. The prototype designs are scaled down to fit inside the laboratory testing facilities and wave basins, and the structures/features are constructed and tested in a range of wave, current, and water level conditions to verify their resilience and their response to harsh environmental forcing. One of the key metrics in measuring their performance is damage, which can often be assessed by a change in the structure/feature surface or profile (for example the profile of a river bank, or the reshaping of a beach face), or the loss of armour material from a breakwater (for example rock or concrete armour units). The advent of infra-red or laser profiling technologies (such as the FARO profiler) has greatly increased the speed and accuracy of surveying objects in hydraulic laboratories. However, in order to survey the objects, the water must be drained as the existing non-intrusive profiling systems cannot resolve the air-water interface effectively or accurately. Older technologies, such as mechanical profiling can be used in both air and water, but are not feasible as they are time consuming and intrusive thereby affecting the profile/stability of the model features during the measurement process. The challenge is to develop a non-intrusive profiling technology for a laboratory environment that can accurately measure the surface and profile objects that are partially or fully submerged in up to 1m of water.

Desired outcomes and Considerations

Essential (Mandatory) Outcomes

Proposed solution must:

1. be able to measure the surface and profile of objects within 1 mm of accuracy in up to 1.0 m of water depth.
2. be able to measure the surface profiles of solid objects (concrete, wood, metal, etc.), as well as porous objects such as piles of rocks (with large voids) or topography composed of fine and loose sediments.
3. be able to penetrate water that is not completely static (ripples of 1-2cm in heights may still be present on the water surface as well as and currents may still exist on the water surface).
4. be non-intrusive (i.e. not come in contact with the objects it is measuring).
5. be able to scan the objects from a variety of angles to ensure no gaps or shadow zones exist in the surface profile. If necessary, the scanner can be portable but must then be fairly lightweight so one person can survey large objects in an efficient manner (objects 50m long by 5m wide by 0.5m high may be measured, and this scan should take roughly 1hr to complete).
6. generate 3D point cloud datasets that can easily be referenced to a selected coordinate system using targets or reference objects by freely available third party software (i.e. CloudCompare).
7. be suitable for hydraulic laboratory settings (safe for human operation in water-filled basins), be able to work in a cordless manner during scans, and be able to penetrate water that may be slightly turbid/dirty.
8. allow the resolution of the scan to be adjustable for varying point cloud densities, thus affecting the accuracy of the scan and the time needed for the instrument to survey the area suitable for different applications.
9. allow the user to set the scan area/constraints.
10. possess the ability to view the scans (even if in low resolution) in near-real time to ensure the coverage area is appropriate.
11. be Windows based.

Additional Outcomes

Proposed solutions should:

1. be able to measure the surface and profile of objects within 1 mm of accuracy in more than 1 metre of water depth.

Background and Context

Currently, scanning of submerged or partially submerged objects in a hydraulic research laboratory is undertaken by removing the water and scanning in the dry basin and residual material representing shoreline, rocks and other pertinent objects reproduced at scale. This is done because scanning the objects (or portions of the objects) that are below water is inaccurate. This results in a very time consuming and expensive surveying process (roughly taking 1-2hrs to remove/refill the water and costing about $1-2k using today’s charge-out rates for basin time). A scanning technology that can survey the objects without draining the water would be extremely useful to NRC and other hydraulic research laboratories. Research has been performed in this area since 2000, but the accuracy of the scans in depths more than 10-20cm is uncertain. 

ENQUIRIES

All enquiries must be submitted in writing to TPSGC.SIC-ISC.PWGSC@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca no later than ten calendar days before the Challenge Notice closing date. Enquiries received after that time may not be answered.