Fusion Enhanced Vehicle Level Diagnostic System

Global Technology Connection, Inc. in conjunction with its partner, Vanderbilt University, is proposing to build a Fusion-enhanced Vehicle Diagnostics System (FVDS) framework to combine various information to help make go/no-go decisions from a safety point of view. Specifically single vehicle will be pursued by looking at each aircraft as a single entity. The system will ensure that the aircraft will make the next maintenance interval by catching errors in the shop and/or detecting emerging problems to maintain vehicle safety between major inspection intervals with an emphasis on the subsystems of airframe, avionics, and propulsion. The system will provide condition indicators, using model-based or data-driven approaches, from a subsystems' or components' point of view, and these will be fused, using the hybrid modeling based on Bayesian theory and/or graph theory, to provide overall safety from a system point of view.FVDS approach consists of a multi-level processing architecture that includes three levels of reasoners:1. Individual Components and Line Replaceable Units that provide BIT test, sensor measurements and control commands to track the behavior of the particular component, and report faulty and abnormal conditions;2. Subsystem reasoners to monitor the state of health of the airframe subsystem; and3. System or Vehicle level reasoner to combine diagnostic and prognostic information from the individual subsystems, puts them on a time line, and also analyzes cascades of faults.