Notice of Intent to Sole Source - Polaris (AUGV) Kit

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) intends to award a contract on a sole source basis to Applied Research Associates Inc. (ARA) upon the basis of the authority provided at FAR13.106-1(b)(1). ERDC-CRREL seeks to procure one (1) Polaris Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle (AUGV) Kit and Control System for mobility testing. The system shall be fully integrated with MRZR. Has direct access to vehicle wiring harness, firmware, and onboard electronics. Direct autonomous control of the following required components: throttle, brake, steering, and transmission. Future upgrades will support direct control of ignition. Provide integration onto the MRZR D4 with testing to ensure system is functional. System must provide control access to autonomy package using ROS Commands. System produced in an A-Kit and B-Kit where the B-kit is hardware and software integrated on the vehicle and the A-Kit is interchangeable between multiple vehicles. Must be commercially available, not an R&D system in development, and fully developed software package for access to mobility controls. ARA is the only company that has the required level of integration because they have the sole partnership with Polaris to provide robotic kits on their MRZR vehicles. As a Polaris partner they have direct access to the vehicles wiring harness, firmware, and onboard electronics, allowing direct control of the required components to include throttle, brake, steering, transmission and ignition. They are the exclusive provider of integrated robotic technology on Polaris MRZR-X vehicles. The associated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 334511, which has a size standard of 1,250 employees. This Notice of Intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement. Any interested party that believes they can fulfill this requirement should submit a capability statement to be reviewed. All submissions will be considered, however there is no guarantee that submissions in response to this notice will in any way alter the Government's acquisition strategy. Please provide responses to this notice NLT 12:00 PM CST, 18 June 2020 to: [email protected] Telephone responses will not be accepted. Responses to this notice will not be considered as a response to any solicitation, a request to be added to a prospective offerors list, or to receive a copy of any solicitation. A determination by the Government not to compete the contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Note: In order to be eligible for award of a Government contract, vendors must be actively registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), have no active exclusions, and complete the FAR and DFARS representations and certifications.