  Volume 6, Number 4     July/August 1998

Small Business/SBIR

Finding Parking No Guessing Game

ADVANCED SENSOR TECHNOLOGY DESIGNED to improve robotic operations at NASA's Kennedy Space Center could help motorists find a parking spot on their own and keep garage operators and others from losing income in a number of parking settings, including busy airports, theme parks and parking garages. The Parking Garage Automation System (PGAS), a result of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract, is a sensor system that could autonomously guide motorists to open facilities and, once within, to free parking spaces. At the same time, it could log license plate numbers for security measures.

The PGAS is based on a technology called Robot Sensor Skin that contains smartSensor™ modules and flexible printed circuit board skin to help robots steer clear of obstacles using a proximity sensing system. The smartSensor™ technology is the result of work by SBIR contractor Merritt Systems, Inc., of Orlando, Florida, to improve robots working with critical flight hardware and to provide a redundant collision avoidance safety system.

Garage operators would not lose the estimated $10 to $15 per car per day when they close parking levels, thinking they are at full capacity. When they make such a decision, it is because they do not know how many free spaces are available in real time, explained Merritt Systems' Chief Executive Officer Ronald L. Remus. He added that his company would like to use the sensor technology to help blind persons with wearable collision avoidance systems.

Applications are being considered for the smartSensor™ network to be installed around and within public parking garages. It would be linked to the garage computer with outdoor smart parking signs using wireless radio frequency modem links and back-lit light-emitted display (LED) or mechanical arrows with red and green blinking lights that show garages with available spaces. Inside the garage, smart routing signs mounted overhead or on poles in front of each row of parking spots would guide the motorist precisely to free spaces.

The sensors are immune to interference from metallic construction materials, such as rebar and steel beams, which degrade inductive loop accuracy and use noninvasive, reflective-ultrasonic technology for high accuracy, high reliability and low maintenance. The smartSensor™ system is inexpensive, remotely programmable and easy to install with new and retrofit installations mounted in any orientation. It has a license plate recognition feature that automatically reads and logs entering and exiting vehicle plate numbers.

For more information, contact Ronald Remus at Merritt Systems.
Call: 407/380-6944, Fax: 407/380-6102, E-mail: remus@pldaas.com
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

Commercial application of an advanced sensor technology used for preflight Shuttle payload inspection and verification may be used to guide motorists directly to parking spaces.

SMALL BUSINESS GETS A BIG JOB

LB&B Associates, Inc., of Columbia, Maryland, a small, minority, woman-owned business, has been awarded a contract to provide test operations support for the Science and Engineering Directorate of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The contract will start with a one-year basic period, followed by four one-year options, which may be exercised at NASA's discretion. If all options are exercised, the contract would be worth as much as $30,930,739.

The work to be performed under the contract includes technician support to operate and maintain the test facilities in the propulsion laboratory at Marshall. LB&B is a small business involved in facilities management, propulsion testing, systems training, simulators and manufacturing.

Proposals for this work were solicited nationally. The procurement was handled under the Small Business Administration program limiting competition to qualified small and disadvantaged businesses. Marshall received a total of seven proposals. These services were previously provided by Consolidated Industries Inc. of Huntsville.

For more information, contact Preston Jones at Marshall Space Flight Center.
Call: 256/544-5716, Fax: 256/544-7454, E-mail: Preston.Jones@msfc.nasa.gov
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root

Web Designer: Vanessa Nugent
Credits