Model-Based Design Tools for Extending COTS Components To Extreme Environments

The innovation in this Phase I project is to prove the feasibility of using model-based design (MBD) tools to predict the performance and useful life of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and COTS-based systems outside of their rated temperature range. These tools will consist of novel modeling tools, advanced system and data analysis capability. The modeling tools will differ from all known technologies in that they will facilitate the capture of experimental data on COTS devices that will get automatically transformed through novel modeling methods into newly created behavioral models with performance degradation and lifetime effects. These tools are relevant and important in providing NASA the means to quantify the reliability and lifetime (i.e., capability and risk) of COTS components and COTS-based systems and provide a trade structure for the assessment of competing technologies. Furthermore, these novel modeling and design tools will provide a means of integrating disparate models, allow agile evolution of models, and encourage MBD reporting mechanisms be used in reviews. Ultimately, these MBD tools will enable lower-cost system development and cost versus lifetime assessment, shorten development time, and extend flight-proven technology to broader applications.