* spotter-email.rtf: Steve Potter 11 June email
Proposal format - Technical Volume
The technical volume is limited to a maximum of 30 pages including a cover sheet, all figures, references, tables, charts, and appendices and consists of the following sections:
The specific BAA instructions for Chembot state that the Technical section of the research proposal must contain the following information:
The more general DSO guidelines for full proposal format and content provided at http://www.darpa.mil/baa/BAA07-21pt2.html specify that the Technical Volume should contain:
a) Executive Summary (two pages or less);
b) Technical Section that clearly describes the innovation of the work to be accomplished, specific metrics for the effort, the risks to achieving those metrics and approaches for mitigation of those risks. All milestones should be clearly delineated, especially those early (12 to 18 months) milestones that are critical to demonstration of the concept or approach. Supporting rationale for performance enhancements should be included. The perceived need for this research and the potential impact on the DoD should be described, and a Statement of Work (SOW) that summarizes critical tasks to be accomplished should be presented;
c) Time-phased schedule-milestone chart;
d) Summary of relevant prior work;
e) Brief description of applicable facilities and equipment;
f) Short resumes of key individuals. The level of effort and specific roles and qualifications of key individuals should be included. If the team is large (greater than 3 separate entities), a management plan for coordination of the effort should also be included; and
g) Current and pending support (award title, amount, period of performance, and degree of overlap with this proposal).
Phase I will be a research effort of not more than 24 months; however, shorter duration efforts are strongly encouraged.
OK, so maybe think 18 months for Phase I?
The Phase I milestone is:
1. Demonstrate a ChemBot, approximately the size (but not necessarily the form-factor) of a regulation softball (i.e., 30 cm circumference; 10 cm diameter; 500 cm3 volume), that can:
a) travel a distance of 5 meters at a speed of 0.25 meters/minute;
b) achieve a 10-fold reduction in its largest dimension; and
c) traverse through a 1 cm opening of arbitrary geometry and reconstitute its original size and shape, in 15 seconds.
Phase II is expected to be a research effort of between 18 and 24 months. The Phase II milestones will be determined by the results of the Phase I effort and the specific applications that are proposed.
Whitepaper to be submitted: May 3, 2007, NO LATER THAN 4:00PM ET. Eight pages.
-- MarkCutkosky - 25 May 2007