System-ID Filtered Comprehensive Prognostics and Health Management (SIC PHM)

The availability of an air vehicle to perform missions or generate sorties is negatively impacted by time spent on the ground due to scheduled servicing and maintenance. Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) is an emerging technology that enables improved condition based maintenance on air vehicles by comparing sensor data to prognostic models of components and subsystems to predict wear as it occurs. Currently, implementation of advanced PHM has been focused on new designs of manned aircraft, such as the Joint Strike Fighter , to allow co development of the PHM system and its specific sensors in the design process. Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have sensors and subsystems already installed that can provide the capability for a PHM retrofit on in-fleet systems. Aurora proposes the System-ID filtered Comprehensive Prognostics and Health Management system (SIC PHM) The SIC PHM system compares estimates of the vehicles current state to on-board models of the aircraft to generate a better understanding of the real-time operating condition of the vehicle and its constituent components.