Intelligent Embedded Diagnostics and Open Architecture for Future Avionics Systems

Impact Technologies, in collaboration with Honeywell, is developing improved embedded diagnostics for avionics as well as open communications architectures that enable information continuity between on-board and off-board systems. Within this paradigmshift approach, embedded diagnostics improvements are being pursued through the evaluation of improved sensed features, artificial intelligence methods, and more detailed consideration of available situational data from bus monitors and environmentalsensors. In addition, an ambiguity group analysis that employs data fusion is being developed to assist the at-wing, automated test equipment, to rank probable causes. The information continuity through the maintenance and logistics systems is best enabledwith a suitable open architecture protocol, such as those based upon CORBA or XML implementations of OSA-CBM. The approach allows the diagnostics results, symptoms evaluated, and operational/environmental conditions to be more easily captured in a databasethat allows for further data mining, clustering, case-based reasoning, and other knowledge discovery methods. The proposed work addresses the development of embedded diagnostic/prognostic avionics health management technologies that will provide dramaticimprovement to the current state of avionics diagnostics and repair. This will, in turn, improve overall mission readiness by decreasing the downtime for repair and total number of repair instances. The development and integration of embedded diagnosticsand prognostics within avionics system and support test equipment will provide many benefits including: improved safety associated with system operations; reduced life cycle or total ownership costs; optimized maintenance intervals and prioritized taskperformance; and increased combat readiness/availability of military systems. We also anticipate a significant reduction in CND, RTOK, and NFF with the diagnostics/prognostics software modules and associated open architecture protocols generated under thisprogram. In addition, the work will contain many generic elements that can be transitioned to a broad range of other applications. The embedded diagnostics approaches, techniques, and specific algorithms could also be implemented in a wide range ofmilitary as well as commercial applications in the civilian aviation community (passenger aircraft, cargo transports, business jets, private aircraft, etc.). The open system architecture development could also be applied across the armed forces and enablemore effective asset management and autonomic logistics.