Sensors for Vehicle Health Monitoring

This project will ultimately design, build, and demonstrate a bench-level prototype sensor system (comprised of 5 sensors with sensor fusion algorithms) with the ability to determine the state of health, predict component and system failures, and measure the following: measure foreign inorganic materials in vehicle fluids; capture extreme shock events; capture a wide range of load events; measure pressure, acceleration, torque, and liquid quality; and, detect cracks in powertrain, chassis, and suspension components. Effective and efficient platform health monitoring requires data readily available from the vehicle databus as well as the integration of additional sensors to gather data that isn’t readily available. Sensor fusion algorithms will be created to make more accurate system level determinations based on the data derived from these individual sensors. Under this effort, work will be done in the five technical areas described above. In addition, any recommendations of suitable mounting locations for the sensors will be pursued. Data types and data parameters that will be available from the working sensors and planned data analysis to determine diagnostics and planned prognostics on the measured vehicle components, sub-systems, and systems will be outlined.