Distributed Ontogenetic Reasoning System

The Joint Strike Fighter Program (JSF) will produce the most sophisticated warfighter in the history of military aviation. JSF is unique as a major weapons system acquisition program in that the economics of system operation, support and maintenance are being developed concurrently with the technology. The JSF Autonomic Logistics (AL) Program aims to minimize operational and support costs by increasing system reliability, reducing maintenance requirements to essential levels. Using Prognostics and Health Management (PHM), materials and maintenance are ordered/performed only when needed, obviating costly routine scheduled maintenance, and reducing aircraft downtime. This vision of efficiency and responsiveness implies real-time communication between the intelligent air vehicle, industrial contractors and their suppliers, and the aircraft maintenance and support team. All of these entities require access to prognostics based on sensor data or life cycle models, and historical information on maintenance to optimized decision making in support of PHM. Here, IAC addresses the need for an intelligent software infrastructure system to manage this complex system. This system features an adaptive knowledge base of maintenance information and distributed intelligent agents which analyze sensor data, PHM model outputs and past behavior to recommend actions under dynamic and uncertain conditions.