NASA SBIR 2015 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Texas Research Institute Austin, Inc.
9063 Bee Caves Road
Austin, TX 78733 - 6201
(512) 263-2101

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
David S. Forsyth
dforsyth@tri-austin.com
9063 Bee Caves Road
Austin, TX 78733 - 6201
(512) 263-2101

CORPORATE/BUSINESS OFFICIAL (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Christina Morton
bmorton@tri-austin.com
9063 Bee Caves Road
Austin, TX 78733 - 6201
(512) 615-4497

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 6

Technology Available (TAV) Subtopics
Advanced NDE Modeling and Analysis is a Technology Available (TAV) subtopic that includes NASA Intellectual Property (IP). Do you plan to use the NASA IP under the award?
No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
NDE data has become ?Big Data?, and is overwhelming the abilities of NDE technicians and commercially available tools to deal with it. In the current state of the art in industrial practice, there is no integration of the NDE data into design data, NDE models, and structural integrity models for a holistic structural capability assessment. Our proposal responds to these issues described in the subtopic H13.01, Advanced NDE Modeling and Analysis. The innovations provided by the NDEToolbox? are:
1. Context-based data browsing and retrieval for diverse sets of large data.
2. Automated data analysis / reduction algorithms for aerospace composites.
3. Data fusion algorithms enabling the use of data from design, modeling (NDE and structural), and multiple NDE methods for the improved quantification of defects.
4. A plug-in architecture enabling further expansion

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The two main categories of NASA applications are in support of in house R&D, and in the inspection of structures for NASA applications by NASA or its suppliers. NASA also builds and procures hardware for many missions. The NDEToolbox? as envisioned provides a way for NASA to gain control over the NDE data from different suppliers using tools from different NDE vendors. The supplier technology base can also be upgraded by providing them with NASA-specified/developed/controlled processing for NDE. The specific case of Remote NDE, as might occur with an astronaut on station using limited equipment and skills to obtain data, is addressed by developing the tools to work with this special data in fusion with known data on space structures.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
TRI/Austin is close to getting approval from an OEM for use of our software to assist in the interpretation of ultrasonic NDE data during the manufacturing process. The additional capabilities that would be developed in support of this phase II project will broaden our ability to support composite space and aerospace structures through the life cycle. This opens up the possibility of selling into the Maintenance Repair & Overhaul (MR&O) market in commercial and military aerospace. Approvals from an OEM will be a significant achievement that is unique to the NDEToolbox?.